Actress Brie Larson wanted to be Ginger Spice

Actress Brie Larson. Photo / AP

Oscar frontrunner Brie Larson has revealed she wanted to be Ginger Spice when she was younger.

The 26-year-old actor, who has been nominated for the best leading actress Oscar at next week's Academy Awards for her role in the critically acclaimed Room, has been acting since she was 11, but she didn't always dream of being a star of the big screen.

Growing up Larson had some different ambitions for her future.

"I had a lot of Spice Girls posters," Larson confessed to ASOS magazine.

"I wanted to be Ginger Spice so bad," she exclaimed.

As well as her acting skills, Larson is also a certified scuba diver, and admits that exploring the ocean is the perfect antidote to "dark" movies such as Room, which tells the story of a mother and her son kept captive by her sexual abuser.

A scene from the movie Room, starring Brie Larson.

She is now hoping to conquer a different aspect of diving, and always wants to push herself as much as she can.

"I want to be an advanced diver. You have to have more training to go into a cave," she said.

"I'm also interested in underwater photography, because the light is different through the water. From making movies I've got obsessed with light and the way it reflects. I love anything to do with the ocean. There was a time when I thought I was going to be a marine biologist."

One thing's for sure - Larson isn't one to sit on her laurels. When it comes to her time off, she prefers to spend it enrolling in online classes rather than frittering it away.

"There's so much free information available to you," Larson said said when asked about the coolest thing about being a 20-something in 2016.

"I'm constantly taking online college classes. I've learned so much, from Greek history to astronomy. I'm a visual person and there are so many people making great videos. At school I found it hard to sit and listen to a teacher talking, but now I can learn in my own time," she said.

"The internet's an amazing resource if you use it to learn, not just to find out what Kim Kardashian shampoos her hair with. I don't care about Kim's shampoo, maybe her conditioner a little bit, but not the shampoo."

- WENN