Speaking of the Oscars…let’s leave the slap heard (and seen) around the world alone for now. The Academy Awards aka The Movies Recognized By White People Award Show is no longer #OscarsSoWhite. Let’s take the time to recognize the youngest person ever nominated for the Best Actress Award. Quvenzhané Wallis at aged nine was nominated for her portrayal of Hushpuppy in the movie Beasts of the Southern Wild. She went up against Jessica Chastain in a movie about hunting the terrorist of 9/11, and Jennifer Lawrence in a movie about two mentally ill people falling in love…how sweet. Quvenzhané did not win the award because a movie about a poor black girl living in a cast-off community trying to survive on their own is not a winner of the White People Award Show.
Beasts of the Southern Wild featured a cast of actors with little to no acting experience. The movie was nominated for four Academy Awards: best picture, best director, best actress and best adapted screenplay. Quvenzhané Wallis was only six years old when the shooting for the movie began. Her character, Hushpuppy, lives with her father in a community called The Bathtub off the Louisiana Bayou.
The Bathtub is a dirty, muddy, and poor community. The community is small and includes outcasts that live in make-shift shacks and eat what the land and bayou provides. They’re cut off from civilization by the levee, a civilization Hushpuppy has never seen. If they lived on the mainland, they would most likely either be homeless, in prison, or in a mental health institution. The adults are uneducated, they drink, they celebrate with fireworks, and the school is makeshift where the children are taught survival skills and how to take care of one another.
Hushpuppy lives in a dilapidated manufactured house alone and across the field of the decaying shack her father lives in. Her father is a drunk, a little abusive and very neglectful, but he cares for her the best way he can under the circumstances. She is a motherless child. Hushpuppy mom has left her early in life and she misses her dearly. She is a lonely child and listens to the heartbeats of the animals. She hears their heartbeat and believes they’re talking in code to her that she can’t understand. The animals are her close friends. In fact, her father in a way treats her like one. He calls for Feed Up Time for dinner and she eats in the shed with the animals and has to share her meat with them.
Hushpuppy’s father health is failing. He knows he is dying and she will be left alone. In spite of this, he keeps her at an emotional and physical distance because of his own inner demons. Meanwhile, a major storm is coming and while some leave, Hushpuppy, her father, and a few others decide to stay and ride the storm out. Her mind interprets the oncoming death and destruction as the prehistoric Aurochs beasts taught to her in school. The Beasts are coming for the Bathtub. Throughout the film, she imagines them breaking free of the ice, stampeding across the land and water towards them. The Beasts are coming to take her father and destroy her community and their way of life.
Through the storm and its aftermath, Hushpuppy realizes her strength. Eventually, Hushpuppy comes to face death and the beasts head-on. She stands strong and makes them bow down to her. Once there was a Hushpuppy, and she lived with her daddy in The Bathtub.
In addition to being the youngest Best Actress in a Leading Role Oscar nominee, Quvenzhané Wallis was also the first African-American to play the title role Annie in 2014. She starred in the musical film opposite Jamie Foxx. The 2014 film version ironically included a number of producers including Will Smith, Jada Pinkett-Smith along with herself. Miss Wallis is also an author. Furthermore, Quvenzhané Wallis has been a member of the Actors Branch of the Academy of Motion Pictures Arts and Sciences since 2018. The same membership that Will Smith resigned from after the 2022 Academy Awards show.
Culture Blurb thanks Quvenzhané Wallis for her contributions. We look forward to seeing more work from her.