Wallis a beast of an actress,but is 9 too young?

Now,at only 9,Quvenzhane (Kuh-VAHN-zuh-nay) is the youngest-ever actress nominee at the Academy Awards. Altogether,Beasts has four nominations at the February 24 ceremony,including best picture.

While her presence is undeniable,Quvenzhane’s nomination raises the question: How young is too young to compete for an Oscar,which has eluded performers with decades more experience and acclaim? Is a child really capable of acting,with craft,or is it just uncanny instinct?

Director Benh Zeitlin doesn’t think 9 is too young for such an honour. Zeitlin,who is up for a best-director Oscar himself with just his first feature,praised Quvenzhane for the incredible sense of self. But he also recalled one day when she seemed to be struggling on set,and he took her aside to ask what was wrong.

‘I can’t snap it today. Normally I can snap it’,he remembered her saying. “The fact that she had an internal sense of when she’s in character,when she’s getting the emotions right and feeling it,is really special even in experienced actors,but especially someone of her age to have that sort of self-awareness.”

Justin Henry,who remains the youngest-ever Oscar nominee in any category for 1979’s Kramer vs Kramer,said that in some ways it’s a purer form of acting at this age.

Henry was just 7 when he played Billy,the little boy at the centre of Dustin Hoffman and Meryl Streep’s custody battle,and 8 when he was nominated for best supporting actor; he lost to 78-year-old Melvyn Douglas (Being There). Tatum O’Neal is still the youngest Oscar winner in any category; she was 10 when she earned the supporting-actress Oscar for 1973’s Paper Moon.

A voting Academy member,Henry said he thought it was “awesome” to see Quvenzhane get nominated for the Fox Searchlight indie drama,which he called the best movie of the year. Now 41 with a 7-year-old daughter of his own,he looks back at his own nomination and acknowledges: “I didn’t even know what it meant… I just remember being nervous as hell about having to give a speech in front of 3,000 people.”

Intriguingly,Quvenzhane is up against the oldest-ever best actress nominee,85-year-old Emmanuelle Riva (Amour). Rounding out the field are Jessica Chastain for Zero Dark Thirty,Jennifer Lawrence for Silver Linings Playbook and Naomi Watts for The Impossible. The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences declined a request to comment on

Quvenzhane’s youth.

Thelma Adams,contributing editor at Yahoo! Movies and a longtime awards prognosticator,points out that Shirley Temple was already well on her way to a career by the time she was 6,the same year she earned an honorary juvenile Oscar.

“There was a lot of craft to what she was doing,” Adams said. “With (Quvenzhane’s) performance,it’s kind of a life force. They’ve captured this wonderful little girl… but it’s not an acting performance.”

“To have her nominated,it’s not good for her,no matter how great she was in the movie—and she was terrific—but this red carpet thing is a grind,” Adams added.

But it’s exactly that kind of passion that drives such extraordinary kids,said John West,headmaster at The Mirman School for highly gifted children in Los Angeles,whose alumni include actors Crispin Glover,Masi Oka (Heroes) and David Dorfman (The Ring movies). “I’m not sure they fathom the importance of the honour. They fathom the importance of the work they do—that’s far more important,” he said.

Zeitlin said Quvenzhane was still very much a little kid on the set: “She would say to me,‘Benh,I’m only 6 years old,you need to use smaller words’,or ‘I’m gonna get cranky sometimes’. She had this awareness almost like an observer of a child.”

He also points out that Quvenzhane is nothing like the girl she played. “Hushpuppy as a character is going through unbelievable circumstances. She’s damaged,she’s morose,she’s contemplative,she’s quiet,she has this great burden on her shoulders,” Zeitlin said. “Quvenzhane Wallis is the most carefree,fun-loving,goofy,playful person you can imagine,and she had to put herself in that skin on a consistent basis.”

Associated Press