Brie Larson knows a little something about life influencing work. The 26-year-old actress, who is nominated for an Oscar for her emotionally wrenching performance in the film "Room," revealed that her parents' divorce and estranged relationship with her father is the reason she is drawn to "volatile" work.
In an interview with Elle Magazine, Larson said that after her parents divorced when she was younger, her relationship with her father drifted. The actress hasn't spoken to her father in 10 years and doesn't think her dad "every really wanted to be a parent."
"When legally I didn't have to have visitation with him anymore, I jumped on it," she told Elle magazine. "As a kid I tried to understand him and understand the situation. But he didn't do himself any favors. I don't think he ever really wanted to be a parent. It wasn't until truly recently that I realized that's why so much of my work was so volatile."
The lack of a relationship with her father had a profound effect on both her personal and professional life, including not feeling comfortable enough to express herself.
She explained, "All of the stuff I wasn't dealing with in my actual life - all of this anger, my fears and my vulnerabilities - I didn't feel comfortable expressing because I felt like it was part of the human code that when we're out in the public space, everyone's perfect and good, and we're all nice women, and we dress well and we brush our hair and agree with these customs."
Currently, Larson is considered the front-runner to win the Academy Award for best actress. She plays a woman named Ma, who is kidnapped and held hostage by the captor she has a child with.
Larson, who has already received the Golden Globe Award for the role, admits she is still struggling to come to terms with her overnight celebrity status, recalling a moment when she met several big-name actresses and had a pinch-me moment because she couldn't believe it was actually happening.
"It was crazy! It was pretty much, like, Helen Mirren, Cate Blanchett, Saoirse Ronan, and me," she recalled. "Then Jennifer Lawrence came in for a little bit, and Kate Winslet, Carey Mulligan... With all of these different press things that we had to do. You're having meals together, and doing these roundtables - I felt like I was hallucinating."
"Most of those people I'd never met before, so it was like the moment when you're not at the kid's table anymore: Wow, not only am I sitting with these legends, but Kate Winslet saw me and ran across the room and grabbed me and with such a beautiful intensity said, 'I am so f--king excited for you!' I love her."
The 88th Academy Awards air on Feb. 28 at 7 p.m. EST on ABC.
