Oscar buzz is building over
Precious—a devastating drama that tells the story of an African American teen who endures unspeakable abuse. Nearly 15 years after the novel on which it was based was published,
Precious is poised to become a cinematic watershed. Crafted into film by director Lee Daniels from the novel
Push by Sapphire—and feted from Sundance to Cannes to Toronto—it could become the first hit movie to feature such marketing averse cinematic motifs as race, AIDS, incest, and poverty. Add in career-defining performances by Mariah Carey, Lenny Kravitz, Paula Patton and the comedienne Mo’Nique—along with the marketing-muscle of executive producers Oprah Winfrey and Tyler Perry—and
Precious increasingly looks like the sleeper smash of the fall film season.
The billionaire talk-show host knows what she likes when she sees it, and she certainly liked Precious. “I’ve never seen anything like it. The moment I saw Precious, I knew I wanted to do whatever I could to encourage other people to see this movie,” Winfrey said of her attachment to the picture, for which she served as executive producer. “The film is so raw and powerful—it split me open.” While on the red carpet in September at the Toronto Film Festival, Oprah told Access Hollywood the film was a modern day Color Purple, in which she made her own big-screen debut an abuse victim.
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The film’s campaign and Web site address say, “We are all Precious,” and this provocative poster, a large-scale painting with wide, visible brush strokes, shows what both refer to: the film’s title character, face muted and name plate necklace glowing. For a movie about self-worth and finding one’s identity, which doesn’t feature a star whose face we’ve seen before, the image is perfectly suited. We may not know who Precious is—nor does she—but the emotions she goes through to reach a state of awareness are relatable to everyone.
Though Gabby Sibide is 10 years older than Precious, the title character she portrays, her eerily realistic portrayal of the pregnant and abused 16-year-old from Harlem is already creating awards-season buzz. The untrained actress had spent time on stage while studying at Lehman College in the Bronx and was encouraged by an assistant director to audition for lead role in Lee Daniels’ sophomore big-screen effort. Sibide was initially hesitant to miss a psychology class but decided to take a leap of faith, which paid off when she got the part. “I started crying,” Sidibe said of clinching the breakthrough role in September 2007. “It was a very clichéd response, but it had all happened so fast."
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It’s no secret Lenny Kravitz is a man of prodigious musical talent, but Precious director Lee Daniels took a chance on the rock star when he cast him as soft-spoken John, the nurse who cares for Precious after she gives birth to her second child (by her father) in the hospital. “It was an interesting process to go into somebody else’s skin,” Kravitz said of becoming the character, who takes special interest in his 16-year-old patient. While Precious’ friends may mock his stereotypically non-masculine profession (and for eating organically in Harlem in the mid-’80s), audiences are sure to applaud Kravitz’ feature film debut performance.
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Stepping away from her comfortable spot on The View, Sherri Shepherd proves she has some serious acting skills. As Cornrows, the fast-talking, acerbic receptionist at Each One Teach One, Precious’ alternative high school, the comedienne-turned-talk-show host is barely recognizable—and not only because of her hair. “When Precious comes in, Cornrows is a little rough on her,” Shepherd says of her small but transformative role. “But there’s something about Precious’ spirit that draws Cornrows to her, more so than any of the other kids in the school.”
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Though Mariah Carey’s role as Precious’ racially ambiguous social worker Mrs. Weiss originally went to older actress Helen Mirren, who had started in Lee Daniels’ Shadowboxer, Mirren was forced to withdraw from the film because of a prior commitment. While others might have been hesitant to cast the multiplatinum recording artist in the role, after her track record with the box-office and critical bomb Glitter, Daniels offered the part to Carey, who called him when he was seeking a replacement for Mirren. But the director saw Mrs. Weiss as an austere woman who doesn’t wear makeup, a big change for the usually glamorous singer. Without artificial beauty aids, Carey holds her own against Mo’Nique and Gabby Sidibe during the film’s climactic scene in her small civil service cubicle.
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Producer-turned-director Lee Daniels was so moved when he read Sapphire’s 1996 novel Push, upon which Precious is based, that he spent more than a decade convincing the author he could bring the harrowing yet hopeful tale to the screen. After seeing his directorial debut, Shadowboxer, Sapphire was persuaded, and Daniels pushed to make this movie a reality. Although he dealt with filming difficulties and casting issues along the way, Daniels’ efforts paid off—the film took home both the Grand Jury Prize and the Audience Award at Sundance, an honor bestowed on just two other films. “It transcends race, gender, religion,” the director told NPR of the film’s universality. “It really does hit home because everybody’s got a little Precious in all of us.”
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Paula Patton has appeared in Déjà Vu with Denzel Washington and OutKast’s Idlewild, but until now the USC film school graduate hasn’t been given a chance to show off her range. In Precious, Patton takes on the role of Blu Rain, Precious’ tough but empathetic literacy teacher, who is the first person ever to help Precious instead of knocking her down. To play the role, Patton spent a few weeks auditing literacy classes like those her character teaches. Although Ms. Rain, as Precious and the rest of the class call her, may seem worlds away from the difficulties her students face, she’s estranged from her own mother, who can’t accept that her daughter is a lesbian. “She feels like an outsider, just like they do,” Patton says of her character.
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After watching Precious in his home theater, the comedic director and actor Tyler Perry sat in tears. “I was taken back 25 years to my childhood when life was rough,” Perry wrote of his early years, when he endured physical, sexual, and verbal abuse. “By the time it was over I was changed.” The moviemaker, who serves as executive producer on the film and says he is donating all the money he makes from it to charity, believes Precious has the potential to do the same for others: “I really think it has the power to change lives.”
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Talk-show host and actress Mo’Nique fearlessly took on the role of Precious’ mother, Mary, sure to become one of cinema’s most frightening villains. Mary treats Precious like a slave—throwing pots and pans at her, screaming at her about her worthlessness, appearance, and intelligence, and accusing her of stealing her man. Spending her days watching television, chain smoking, and living off welfare, Mary, in Mo’Nique’s portrayal, is more than cringe-worthy, earning the actress the Jury Prize at Sundance and enormous buzz for the upcoming awards season. Still, it was a dangerous role to take on, and director Lee Daniels warned Mo’Nique it could “f*** up [her] career,” according to Entertainment Weekly. But after talking to her then-17-year-old son about what’s sure to be a career-changing role, Mo’Nique told him, “Baby, sign me up!”
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Precious (Gabby Sidibe) and her mother, Mary (Mo’Nique), sit in their cat-filled Harlem apartment, waiting for their social worker to arrive with Mongo (short for Mongoloid), Precious’ first child by her father. Though Mongo, who suffers from Down syndrome, lives with Mary’s mother, she brings the child over once a month when the social worker comes to ensure the two can receive their welfare check. Mary may be able to fool the system into fueling her cycle of cigarette smoking, eating, watching television, and abusing her only child, but audiences are sure to be disgusted by her act, which ends unsettlingly when she casually tosses her granddaughter on the couch.
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