Gabourey Sidibe interview for Precious

This is not what I’d planned on doing with my life at all!’ Gabourey Sidibe laughs, gesturing around the luxurious hotel suite where she is based for interviews during the London Film Festival. Before going to a film audition almost on a whim two years ago, the 24-year-old from Harlem had been working as a receptionist in order to pay her way through college. A psychology major, she had just enrolled for the third year of her degree course, but despite a cv that included only three minor parts in college theatre productions, she ended up cancelling her classes to play the title role in Precious, a film that was the breakout hit of Sundance at the start of 2009 and has since been rapturously received at festivals across the world, picking up three Golden Globe nominations, including best actress for Sidibe. ‘I’d never even fantasised about being an actress,’ she says. ‘So to get a role of such magnitude, and to have it do what it’s doing, it’s just… overwhelming.’

Read the full interview on Telegraph