Quvenzhané Wallis doesn't know a life without movies. The Louisiana native made her acting debut in 2012's Beasts of the Southern Wild, starring as the tough and daring Hushpuppy. For her performance, 9-year-old Wallis was nominated for an Oscar — becoming the youngest Best Actress nominee in Oscars history.
"I see it in little flashes of the things that I really remember, like the snacks and seeing the people and what the auditorium looked like from my perspective at that time," the actress says of attending the 85th Oscars. "But it's also so much of a blur that sometimes I have to have my mom remind me."
Wallis followed Beasts of the Southern Wild with a small part in 2013's 12 Years a Slave, playing the daughter of Chiwetel Ejiofor's Solomon Northup. At the 86th Oscars, 12 Years a Slave won Best Picture. In the years since, she balanced living a normal teenage life with memorable turns in the movie musical remake of Annie and a voice role in Trolls, not to mention starring in a musical video for Beyoncé's visual album Lemonade.
Now 20, she is headlining the sci-fi thriller Breathe opposite Oscar winner Jennifer Hudson, a dream come true for a Dreamgirls superfan. Up next, "I want something very serious that I have to involve myself in before I'm even filming," she manifests. "I feel like that'd be a challenge for me as an actor and I could learn from it and apply it to my life too."
Below, Wallis sings the praises of her five favorite films.
Directed by: John Musker and Ron Clements | Written by: John Musker, Ron Clements and Rob Edwards
The Princess and the Frog is everything to me. I even did an Academy event talking about Princess and the Frog! It was nostalgic even when I first watched it, and it just gave me a sense of home. And it was the first Black Disney princess, so it also gave me a voice and someone I could look up to — even though she's a frog for most of the movie. [Laughs.] But I still was vibing with it, because I'm an animal person.
Directed by: Harald Zwart | Written by: Christopher Murphey
That's another movie with a young actor, Jaden Smith. But also just the memorable lines, like, "Dre, pick up your jacket!" It's in my blood. My family, we quote it all the time. It's action-packed and it has all these motivational things in. Also, Jackie Chan! That's iconic in and of itself.
Directed by: Malcolm D. Lee | Written by: Norman Vance Jr.
Roll Bounce and High School Musical were where I had my first two crushes. For Roll Bounce, it was Bow Wow. The whole movie was just perfect to me. There's a lot of songs from the movie that my dad would play. He calls me, "Fire Water" and there's a song that says “fire” in it, and it was just like, "They're talking about me, I know they are! This is meant for me."
I loved roller skating as a kid — I still do — and watching them grow up in the movie and see how they were joking and ribbing each other and having this little banter with each other is how my brothers and I are. So, it represented a lot of things in my life. I think my sister might have put me onto Roll Bounce, because she's 10 years older. But I did like the music and the roller skating — and Bow Wow!
Directed by: George Miller | Written by: George Miller, John Collee, Judy Morris and Warren Coleman
I am a kid at heart, and I still watch Happy Feet and I still love it. Like I said, I'm an animal person, and there's some real-world occurrences here. We just watch animals at zoos and f**k with them and mess with their food, so it was nice to have a movie that had a deeper meaning. But when I watched it at the time, I didn't know. I was just enjoying the music and watching Mumble dancing and Gloria singing her ass off. And then I watched it again when I was older and I was like, "Exactly, that's what I've been saying!"
Directed and Written by: Bill Condon
I love me some Dreamgirls! I know pretty much all the words to "It's All Over." "Effie, Curtis was supposed to... love me!" That whole song is my favorite. That's where I fell in love with Jennifer Hudson, before I knew her music. There are a lot of people that I look up to. When I got older and realized Anika Noni Rose voiced Tiana in Princess and the Frog and then I got to interview her, it was like breaking the fourth-wall. I was so in love with it even more.
Now, getting to work with Jennifer and go on set and be like, "Effie? Curtis was supposed to love me," and her just being like, "Come on, sing it, girl!" And I was able to meet Beyoncé and work with her on Lemonade. And Jamie Foxx [in 2014's Annie]! All of Dreamgirls is full-circle for me. It is just all my people, and I love it so much.
