INSIDE EDITION caught up with the star of Beasts of the Southern Wild, Quvenzhané Wallis, who is the youngest girl ever to be nominated for an Oscar® for Best Actress.
Seth MacFarlane announced during the Oscar® nominations ceremony, "For Best Actress, the nominees are: Quvenzhané Wallis, for Beasts of the Southern Wild."
With those words, it's instant stardom for a little girl who just became the youngest person in history to be nominated for a Best Actress Oscar®!
INSIDE EDITION has awarded nine-year-old Quvenzhané with a teddy bear for her outstanding accomplishment.
INSIDE EDITION's Jim Moret said to Quvenzhané, "You were sleeping when the nominations were announced."
Quavenzhané said, "My mom tapped me and said, 'You're nominated! You're nominated!'"
However, she was not surprised by the big news.
"I knew it would happen, I didn't know there would be so much blabber about it," she said.
And you won't believe how nine-year-old Quvenzhané, who hails from a humble home fifty miles from New Orleans rose to glory.
She auditioned for Beasts of the Southern Wild when she was just five-years-old.
The casting call was for girls age six to nine, so the child's mom lied about her age, but Quvenzhané told the truth. Mom's little lie didn't keep her from beating out more than 4,000 other kids to win her very first professional part, the one that put her in the record books.
Director Behn Zeitlin had no doubts about choosing her.
He told Moret, "She had this poise. She had this fearlessness. She could bring emotion to words in a way that we have never seen done before."
Check out the child's competition for Best Actress, it's Naomi Watts, Jessica Chastain, Jennifer Lawrence, and this big surprise, Emmanuelle Riva.
Emma Stone announced at the Oscar® nominations ceremony, "At 85, Emmanuelle is the oldest Oscar® nominee in Oscar® history. Quvenzhané is the youngest ever, she's nine."
So, what do we know about the pint-sized Oscar® nominee?
Her dad is a truck driver, and her mom is a track coach, she's the youngest of four children.
Her dad had some good advice for his daughter when the good news broke. Quvenzhané shared it with Moret, "He said, 'How do you feel?' I said, 'I feel special.' He said, 'Don't let it get to your mind.' I said, 'Ok.'"
She is the talk of the entertainment world, even if some people can't even pronounce her name properly. Kelly Ripa struggled saying it Thursday morning on Live with Kelly and Michael.
