Director's big chance for Oscar success

Gabourey Sidibe, who plays Precious (left), was a receptionist and student before she auditioned for the movie, which also stars Mariah Carey and Mo'Nique (right). Photo / Supplied

He might be the relative unknown among the directors vying for awards season honours. But Lee Daniels - whose film Precious: Based on the Novel Push by Sapphire has been hailed as this year's Slumdog Millionaire - is surely well connected.

The 50-year-old African American openly gay film-maker is a former talent agent, who has previously used his networking skills to make bleak movies starring famous faces in unlikely roles.

He was the producer of Monster's Ball, the death row drama which won Halle Berry an Oscar and also starred Sean "Puffy" Combs as well as Billy Bob Thornton and Heath Ledger. He also produced The Woodsman, where Kevin Bacon's sympathetic portrayal of a paedophile raised eyebrows.

His 2005 directing debut, Shadowboxer, starring Cuba Gooding Jnr and Helen Mirren as assassins and lovers went unnoticed.

But Precious: Based on the Novel Push by Sapphire has turned its festival circuit buzz into awards contender. For her role as an abusive mother, comedian Mo'Nique won the best supporting actress Golden Globe this week, while the film has also done the unthinkable - brought the flaky Mariah Carey credibility as an actress for her role as a social worker. Much has been made of her unglamorous appearance in the film, complete with fuzzy top lip.

"People say to me, 'You are so ugly in this movie,' and I take that as a compliment," Carey told the New York Times. "During the filming, I tried to sneak some blush, but Lee caught me. He rubbed my cheek and said, 'Take that off'."

Daniels also got talkshow queen Oprah Winfrey (as executive a producer) and musician Lenny Kravitz (who plays a nurse) into the project.

When we meet, Daniels sports wild, long, corkscrew hair and speaks loudly. His film might examine some touchy subjects - incest, child abuse, illiteracy, obesity, dysfunctional inner city African American family life - but Daniels is anything but reserved.

And the film does have its own feelgood story - the discovery of Gabourey Sidibe, who Daniels cast in the title role of Precious, an overweight, borderline illiterate 16-year-old, who lives in 1987 Harlem with her abusive mother and is pregnant with her second child by her father.

"I couldn't call a Hollywood agent and say, 'Hey, do you have a 400-pound black girl?" Daniels says, "So I had to do an open call around the country. I saw 500 girls and Gabbie was right around the corner in Harlem. She came in and auditioned and blew my mind. The thing is, we had lots of Preciouses, but no one who was really, really smart. Gabbie is not acting on the red carpet when she looks up excitedly; that's her, but everything else is acting. We worked very hard on her lowering her voice."

A lively 26-year old, Sidibe admits she was intimidated by her fellow cast.

"I'm such a fangirl," she giggles. "My background is certainly not acting. My mother's a singer, so I've always been around painting and art, even though it's not something I've been a part of myself. I was a student and receptionist the day before the audition and now I'm an actress. It's not as if I've now got a big head and I'm suddenly awesome; I fully believe that I was awesome then. But I've changed, grown up. It's a weird thing because being on set with so may people who were icons to me, I've learned so much. Now I have a different knowledge of what life can be. Before I thought I could be a receptionist my whole life."

Daniels quickly put any worries to rest that Sidibe might be, as he puts it, "in denial about her girth".

"Black girls are good with their size, in fact most girls who are plus sizes are very proud of it. My sister's a very big woman and she's really into fashionable clothes and high heels. It's your perception that there should be some sort of embarrassment," he says.

Winfrey says Sidibe reminds her of herself at 31, when she made her own acting debut in The Color Purple (1985). "This is The Color Purple of our times, a very edged version with some of the same themes, like the abuse. This is Gabby's first film and Precious reminds me of Celie [played by Whoopie Goldberg] in The Color Purple. I think wonderful things are going to happen for her."

"The message of the film," she says, "is to open yourself to the possibilities of your life. Everything that you're drawing into yourself can help lift you up and lift you out of wherever you are. None of us who see the movie can now walk through the world and allow the Precious-es of the world to be invisible."

Daniels defends his casting of Mariah Carey, and of his "best friend" Lenny Kravitz, whom he says will appear in his next film.

"When I start a script it begins with music, from Puffy to Mos Def to Mariah to Kravitz. I love musicians. They're hungry and anxious to prove themselves. I met Mariah through her husband, Nick Cannon, who is a brilliant musician."

Initially he cast Helen Mirren in Carey's social worker role. "Helen got another job, explains Daniels, but I'm so glad Mariah did it, because her performance is so unexpected."

"I've been a fan of the book since the first time I read it," notes Carey. "I read it again immediately. It was so overpowering. It changed my life. But I really couldn't have fathomed how to turn it into a film."

For Daniels it's a universal human story. "I'm a black film-maker and the story is told from a black perspective and it happens to a black girl, but this story could happen anywhere. I've been around the world with the film and I'm continually shocked and surprised that women in Japan and Europe feel that they are like Precious."


Precious moments - how a film was born

1995

New York author Sapphire is offered $500,000 at a publisher auction to complete her debut novel Push, loosely based on the life of a student during her days as an English teacher.

1996

The novel is published by Vintage and named one of the top 10 books of the year by TimeOut New York. The New York Times calls it "an affecting and impassioned piece of work".

1998

The mother of bratpack actress Ally Sheedy gives film producer Lee Daniels a copy of Push. He says he was left "gasping for air" as it evoked painful memories of his own childhood abuse.

2007

Daniels finally acquires the rights to Push after pursuing Sapphire for almost 10 years. Daniels asks his friend Geoffrey Fletcher to write the screenplay after watching a short film he made in the mid-90s.

2008

Five hundred girls are interviewed for the lead role before Daniels discovers newcomer Gabby Sidibe in an open audition. Mariah Carey, Lenny Kravitz and comic actress Mo'Nique are cast in supporting roles. Daniels shoots most of the film on New York streets without permits.

2009

Daniels' film - now called Precious to avoid confusion with Dakota Fanning's new film Push - wins three awards at the Sundance Film Festival including the Special Jury Prize. Oprah Winfrey telephones Daniels during the award ceremony offering to help promote the film as executive producer.

September 2009

Precious wins the People's Choice Award at the Toronto International Film Festival.

November 2009

The film is released in US cinemas.

January 2010

The film is nominated for Golden Globes in the categories of best picture drama, best actress drama, best supporting actress drama, winning the last for Mo'Nique.

- Observer

Lowdown

What: Possible Oscar contender Precious: based on the Novel Push by Sapphire. Directed by Lee Daniels and starring Gabourey Sidibe, Mo'Nique, Mariah Carey
When: Opens at cinemas February 4.