Just a few reasons why we LOVE Brie Larson
Brie Larson has racked up an impressive resume in Hollywood thus far, starring in projects like 21 Jump Street, The United States of Tara, and Trainwreck — and she doesn’t plan on stopping anytime soon. Her new movie Room is amazing, hits theaters today, and is already generating Oscar buzz for the 26-year-old actress.
Based on the best-selling book by Emma Donoghue, the film follows the life of Joy, a kidnapping victim, trying to escape from her captor along with her 6-year-old son, Jack. We cannot recommend the film enough (but be prepared for your heart to hurt).
Not only is Brie amazing on screen, but she also seems to be an all-around amazing person too. For proof, see below. Congratulations on the new movie Brie! So excited to see where your amazing career takes you next.
The girl can sing.
At 6 years old, I was too busy learning how to not trip over my own feet to even begin considering what I would do for a career. Brie Larson was much more mature. When she turned 6, Brie started working with an acting coach and was eventually discovered by her agent at the ripe old age of 7. She went on to sign with Universal at 13, releasing her first album “Finally Out of P.E.” in 2005.
She has a really cool name.
Wait for it: Brianne Sidonie Desaulniers. In my opinion, that moniker is right up there with Sigourney Weaver and Ned Rocknroll on the list of unique celebrity names. Realizing that most people would struggle with her French last name, though, Brie settled on the stage name Larson early on, sparing many of us the embarrassment of trying to correctly chant “I love Brie De-saul-nee-airs!” at concerts.
She was the youngest person to ever enroll at the American Conservatory Theater.
Six was a big year for Brie Larson. When she turned 6, Brie joined the American Conservatory Theater, making her the youngest ever participant. To put this into perspective: ACT was ranked one of the top five acting programs in the country and has produced talent like Nicholas Cage, Chris Pine, and Winona Ryder. Is it acceptable to ask a 6 year old to be your life mentor or no? Asking for a friend. She goes all in for her roles.
In Room, Larson plays a young, underfed woman who has been kept in isolation in a dark room for years. To prepare for the role, she not only visited trauma specialists and researched sexual abuse stories but she also avoided sunlight and worked relentlessly to get her body fat down to 12%. She also went on a silent retreat, reflecting on her own traumatic family experiences. In short, nobody can say that Larson does not come ready for her roles.
She’s a feminist, loud and proud.
When Jake Johnson originally began planning the film Digging for Gold, he envisioned his character Tim inadvertently seducing Larson’s character and sparking a dramatic love story but Larson steered the film in a different direction. After bluntly explaining the film’s flawed logic (“I would not be sexually attracted to a married man with a 5-year-old who’s digging in his backyard”), Johnson and the director Joe Swanberg rehashed the story to focus more on the adventure part of the tale.
She’s a renaissance woman.
I’m not proposing here that Larson is some immortal woman from a few hundred years ago who still wears large poofy dresses and who would be worthy of an X-Files investigation. I’m saying she’s a jack-of-all-trades. (Or should I say, a “Joy-of-all-trades”?) Her IMDB page looks like that of a seasoned director and yet, she’s barely old enough to rent a car. On the short film Weighting, for example, Brie is credited for helping write, direct, and edit. She tries to avoid becoming part of the “Hollywood machine.”
In an interview with BuzzFeed, Larson explained how she doesn’t like the flashy Hollywood lifestyle: “I don’t really feel like I’ve been part of the industry, I don’t feel like I’ve been part of some weird machine . . . I’ve actually made a conscious effort to not be a part of it. I don’t live in Los Angeles, I work in Los Angeles, and even that — I audition in Los Angeles, I very rarely film in Los Angeles. I don’t hang out with producers on my off-hours, so I don’t even know what that world is like.” Celebrities, they really are just like us! At least, this one is.
After kickstarting her career as a kid, Larson was homeschooled for many years, eventually graduating from high school at the age of 15. Considering she’s an autodidact, AKA a self-learner, this is not surprising. Larson takes online courses and listens to iTunes lectures in her spare time. Meanwhile, I’ve made it through the second season of Broad City and most of my information comes from a “fun facts” Twitter account so we all know who the clear life winner is here.
Related reading:
We’re getting pretty excited about this based-on-true-events feminist sports drama
And then, Jimmy Fallon made Brie Larson take the Whisper Challenge
[Images via Instagram and A24]
