She’s viewed the original 1982 movie, which starred young Aileen Quinn, Albert Finney and featured an unforgettable Carol Burnett as Ms. Hannigan. Wallis said she was enthralled by the movie and was a huge fan of the character’s tough-but-sweet persona.
“I watched the film. When I watched it I was like ‘Wow!’ In one of the scenes, Sandy runs by and she has two cans on his tail. She goes up to the dog and they run off and she sings ‘Tomorrow.’ I thought it was very cool that she sang it for the dog and I thought it was funny that the boys got scared of her. She’s strong. She’s girl power!
“Annie was kind of like me — she had spunk and she had confidence. It was really fun playing her. Of course, the dog and all of this stuff [are fun] — [but also] it was really nice working with very professional actors. Not saying that all of the people in Beasts … weren’t professional; but [these actors] … they’d been in a lot of films and they were all really funny and really nice and always there for me if anything was going on; and the set was really nice. Beasts… was [shot] outside, but this was in the city.”
Making the leap from an indie film like Beasts … to a big-budget studio project like Annie was also an experience that clearly affected Wallis. She recognized the differences immediately, from the other names on the callsheet to the approach that was taken on-set. Her superstar co-stars, Jamie Foxx and Cameron Diaz, made sure the youngster had a positive experience.
“Jamie was really funny,” she says. “And Cameron Diaz was really nice and like a mother to me.” When she got word that she’d landed the part, Wallis was also giddy at the opportunity to show a wider range of talent, which included singing and dancing.
“Everything was exciting!” she says. “When I found out I got the part and knew that I’d get to sing and dance and [be] taking singing and dancing lessons, I was really excited. I’d kind of sung in a choir and I was going with my brothers when they were doing travel basketball and I was singing in the choir.” And she and Foxx bonded during the musical segments, especially.
“When he was singing the music — we were always singing — and sometimes we would joke around with the notes,” Wallis says with a grin. She’s perfectly at ease with filmmaking, having been in movies since she was 6. And she says the process has never been a struggle for her at all.
“Beasts … was my first movie and I wasn’t used to it,” Wallis says. “It was my first real film. But it wasn’t very hard, except that it was the first movie.”
She’s got her eye on more movies (“I want to do a comedy role next.”); while also still doing “normal kid” stuff — like learning corny jokes (“Why can’t the bike stand by itself? It’s two tired.”) and finishing her homework. Life has changed a lot for Quvenzhané Wallis in the last two years. But for the young Oscar nominee, family and faith keep her unpretentious, and she’s trying to make sure that doesn’t change.
“My family is always there for me,” she shares. “God is always there for me. I have been told by my mother and my father that I need to stay grounded. And don’t let anything get to my head, so … I’m trying my best!”
The room at the Children’s Museum continues to buzz as Wallis grabs a slice of pizza and chats with the cameraman about some of her schoolwork. She notices a beautiful woman putting on makeup; the lady intently stares into her compact as she fixes herself. Que smiles earnestly and flashes a bit more of that beyond-her-years innocent perceptiveness.
“It’s hard to be perfect,” she says casually, before grabbing the leash of her canine co-star, and heading out of the room.
Story by Stereo Williams
Images courtesy The Chamber Group
