"We knew we were going to make this movie and put it on the shoulder's of someone really tiny."
-Benh Zeitlin, Director of Beasts of the Southern Wild
On Thursday, January 10th, Quvenzhané Wallis was nominated for Best Actress for the 85th Academy Awards, making her the youngest nominee for that category, and the third youngest nominee ever, in history. While her name will forever grace the pages of the Academy's record books, we have a feeling her performance as Hushpuppy will leave the most unforgettable legacy.
The role of Hushpuppy, based on a character from Lucy Alibar's play, Juicy and Delicious, was originally adapted for the screen as an 11 year-old girl. But through the development and casting process, director Benh Zeitlin, came to a transformative revelation. He told NPR's All Things Considered:
"We actually originally wrote that character to be 11 years old, thinking that that was the youngest we could possibly find someone that could handle this role. But as we did casting — and we were casting as we were writing — we realized sort of to our horror that the mind we were trying to explore was actually a 6-year-old mind. And so that was sort of a disastrous moment where I told my producers this, and they were like, 'Oh, my God, this is impossible.'"
The film's producers quickly set off on their mission impossible, canvasing the area in and around New Orleans with casting flyers advertising an open call for young girls between the ages of 6 and 9.
Back in Houma, Louisiana, five year old Quvenzhané Wallis had just completed kindergarten, when her mother's friend called with information regarding an open casting call at their local library. Quvenzhané Wallis told Roger Ebert:
"The audition turned out to be at the library and my mom got a call from one of her friends and it was for six through nine year olds. So my mom said I couldn't go cause I was only five, and [the friend of] my mom forced her to go... So we sneaked in and we walked out like we didn't do nothin'."
Despite her age and lack of experience, Benh immediately recognized something special about little Quvenzhané. Again, from NPR:
"The moment [Quvenzhane Wallis] walked in — I have it on tape. You just see this wisdom and focus and tenacity and fearlessness in her eyes that she didn't have to say anything. It was like you could put the camera on her face, and you just see this whole world that she has inside of her that's so beyond her years. And I think that was the thing that really took us the most — that she is such a little kid in so many ways, but then at the same time you can pull her aside and tell her where her motivation is and tell her where she needs to emotionally pivot in the scene, and she completely internalizes it, and is able to focus and project it. It was an absolute miracle that we found her."
Watch a clip from her first audition from this Access Hollywood interview, beginning at the 3:15 mark:
The pivotal moment of Quvenzhané's audition came when she was asked to throw a stuffed animal at one of the producers reading lines with her. Quvenzhané refused to follow the order. Benh Zeitlin says on CBS Sunday Morning, "She was being defiant but she was being defiant on the grounds of sweetness and on the grounds of right and wrong. And, that's who Hushpuppy is." Benh had finally found his heroine.
Before production even began, Quvenzhané played a large part in developing the spirit of the film. She hand picked Dwight Henry to play the role of her father, Wink, and would often sit down with Benh Zeitlin at the computer and help rewrite lines of dialogue.
