'Precious': How a Film About an Obese Harlem Teenager Turned the Tables on Hollywood

By Emily Wilson, The Women's Media Center. Posted November 10, 2009.

In Precious: Based on the Novel "Push" by Sapphire, Gabourey Sidibe plays the title role of the obese Harlem teenager caught up in a cycle of abuse, incest and poverty. The New York Times, among others, raved about this, her first film performance, calling it “terrific” and “dazzling.”

Sidibe, who knows she is no one’s idea of a movie star, says the best thing about actually starring in a movie is the example it sets for her two younger sisters, 13-year-old twins, who sleep in the same Harlem bedroom she did growing up.

“What is so great about me doing this film,” she says, is that “I’m an actual example for them to see that they can be whatever they want to be, no matter what they look like. When you think Hollywood actress, you don’t think of a girl that looks like me, but now you can. There’s hope for my sisters.”

Out in San Francisco for the screening of the film at the opening night of the Mill Valley Film Festival, Sidibe, along with director Lee Daniels and Paula Patton who plays Precious’ teacher at an alternative school, all seem a little surprised and gratified at the attention to their film, which has won the Grand Jury Prize at Sundance and the People's Choice Award at the Toronto Film Festival.

Daniels says he appreciates the accolades, but what really thrilled him was Sapphire’s reaction. She felt the book should stay a book, not a movie, and it took Daniels eight years to change her mind. 

“I had to explain to her, ‘Listen, your book is etched in stone for forever. Nobody is going to say the book sucks because the movie sucks. You still created a frigging masterpiece,’” Daniels says. “At the end of the day, my biggest award was her loving this movie. She came into my arms and cried.”

Daniels doesn’t seem poised to do a romantic comedy any time soon. He produced The Woodsman about a pedophile and Monster’s Ball about a racist white prison guard’s affair with the African American wife of the last person he killed. He directed Shadowboxer, the story of a stepmother and her stepson who are lovers and assassins. Clearly, Daniels doesn’t shy away from challenging subjects. But Precious, which deals with illiteracy, rape, abuse and poverty—none of them topics known for being big box office draws—seems like it could be the most challenging one yet. The New York Times Magazine recently ran a cover story called “The Audacity of ‘Precious’” that asked “Is America ready for a movie about an obese Harlem girl raped and impregnated by her abusive father?”

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Emily Wilson is a freelance writer and teaches basic skills at City College of San Francisco.

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