THE OSCAR ISSUE / HUFFINGTON / 02.10-17.13
kwuh-ven-juh-nay
‘‘
WHEN
I MENTIONED
TO WALLIS THAT
SHE’D BEEN
DESCRIBED
AS A
‘FIRECRACKER,’
SHE LAUGHED,
‘YES ...
BECAUSE
I’M MADE OF
FI-YA!’
teased. “I’ve checked
under the bed, and he’s
checked in the bathroom.
I wonder where she is!”
I felt the need to speak
again. “I want to be on
the record: I did not check
in the bathroom.”
It was at this point that
Quvenzhané Wallis, who
would surprise the world
on Jan. 10 when, at age 9,
she became the youngest
ever Best Actress nominee in Oscar history, stormed out of the closet, screaming.
It seemed like as suitable a way as any to
end a game of hide-and-seek.
I don’t feel comfortable interviewing
children one-on-one. Not because they
can’t be thoughtful or interesting, but because it just doesn’t seem fair. As an adult
in his 30s, I can’t imagine being asked to
speak on the record before reaching my
10th birthday. When I agreed to this interview, I was told that it would be a joint
conversation with Wallis and Dwight Henry, who plays her father in the film. Somehow, the plan had changed, and I was now
due to speak with each actor separately.
In Beasts of the Southern Wild — which
scored Oscar nominations in four catego-
ries, including Best Picture
and Best Director — Wallis
plays Hushpuppy, daughter
to a stern but loving father
named Wink (Henry). The
two live in a flood-prone
Delta community, which
is in grave danger of sinking into the Gulf of Mexico.
Wallis, with no acting experience, beat out more
than 4,000 other girls to
win the role of Hushpuppy.
“I know it’s something that you wouldn’t
expect, but it happened,” she told me.
The posh hotel room felt a world away
from the setting of Beasts. It was the end
of a long day, and I can only imagine how
many interviews Wallis had endured before meeting with me. Her mother, Qulyndriea, explained that the purpose of the
impromptu game of hide-and-seek was to
keep Quvenzhané’s energy level high.
“It made it to red! Ahhhh! Ahhhhh!”
Quvenzhané was yelling into my iPhone,
trying to push the bars on the voicerecording app into the red zone. When I
mentioned to Wallis that she’d been described as a “firecracker,” she laughed,
“yes ... because I’m made of fi-ya!” She
sang the word “fire.” Her mother’s hide-
‘‘