Road Kill Easy Bake Oven, The Clash at Demonhead, and a store of unicorns. From Indie darling to
Oscar Winner to Marvel superhero, Brie Larson's transformation is stunning!
Brie Larson, born Brianne Desaulniers, expressed an interest in acting at age six,
later moving to Los Angeles with her mom after her parents got divorced. Within a year, she became
the youngest actor to enroll in the legendary American Conservatory Theater in San Francisco,
where actors like Denzel Washington and Winona Ryder cut their teeth. Larson attributes this
early ambition to her mother, claiming that her maternal grandparents, quote,
"wouldn't allow her to have that kind of life," according to Elle Magazine.
After adopting the last name "Larson" from her great-grandmother in an effort to appeal to
casting directors, Brie began to regularly book roles. The first of those was for a
commercial parody on "The Tonight Show with Jay Leno" in 1996, promoting "Malibu Mudslide
Barbie." Thankfully, Larson was charming enough as a child actor to be invited back for over a
dozen more parodies like the "Road Kill Easy Bake Oven." She told Jimmy Fallon in 2017:
"It's kind of where I learned I had comedic timing."
That comedic timing would later come in handy for Larson as she began to book more roles on TV,
becoming a series regular on "Raising Dad," where she played the daughter of
Bob Saget's character during the show's single-season run in 2001.
While Larson was still far from becoming an Oscar-winning movie star, her time in the
spotlight would come sooner than she thought. As her child acting career slowly continued,
Larson eventually recorded a song, "Invisible Girl," and uploaded it to her website,
where a local Los Angeles radio station picked it up. At age 15,
Larson was offered a record deal by Casablanca Records,
giving her the same shot at stardom as teens of the time like Taylor Swift or Miley Cyrus.
"Hey, this is Brie Larson. Welcome to Sessions at AOL. Come on in!"
Larson's record label had her quickly record her debut album, "Finally Out of P.E.," which
after several delays was finally released in fall 2005. The album's lead single,
"She Said," was a minor hit on the Billboard charts. The album's thirteenth and final track,
"Hope Has Wings," was featured in "Barbie and the Magic of Pegasus," which Larson promoted
by performing on the "Barbie" float during the 2005 Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade.
Although Larson clearly had the potential to reach an audience of angsty mid-2000s teens,
the pop star life wasn't meant to be. In hindsight, everything seems to have worked
out for the best, with Larson claiming in an interview with Buzzfeed News in 2015,
"[I was] so insecure and so hard on myself back then."
Her musical side wouldn't get sidelined for long, though.
There was a lot riding on "United States of Tara," a 2009 Showtime series set to star Toni Collette
as a woman with dissociative identity disorder. Brie auditioned to play Collette's character's
daughter Kate in the pilot, allowing her to potentially act alongside her greatest acting
hero, but unfortunately, she didn't land the part. That is, until the show was picked up
and Kate was recast, giving Brie another shot at the part, which she eventually locked down.
Ironically, this finally paired Brie with the show's creator, Diablo Cody,
who had penned "Juno." Being a series regular on a Showtime series for three seasons gave Larson
a lot of opportunities, such as the 2009 comedy film "Tanner Hall" and even a role
in "Our Town" for the Williamstown Theatre Festival. Amongst all these other projects,
however, Larson felt closest to Kate from "United
States of Tara," who is rebellious and selfish towards her struggling mother.
Although critics had lots of praise for the show, particularly for the performances of
both Collette and Larson, it was canceled by Showtime after its third season in 2011. In an
interview with Buzzfeed, Larson lamented the show's cancellation and regrets not spending
more time on her character's bedroom set during their final days of shooting, saying,
"I didn't say my final good-byes to those walls."
After "United States of Tara," Larson's jobs started to get more high-profile. In 2010,
she co-starred in Noah Baumbach's "Greenberg" alongside Ben Stiller and Greta Gerwig,
which helped raise her profile among independent film fans. However,
she made quite an impression on mainstream audiences when she was cast in Edgar Wright's
2010 film "Scott Pilgrim vs. the World," adapted from the graphic novel series.
If Larson had struggled to grab the attention of casting directors before, that changed with
her "Scott Pilgrim" audition. According to Edgar Wright in an interview with Entertainment Weekly,
"Brie — who was 19 at the time, maybe she was
even 18 when she auditioned — blew everybody else away."
That's certainly the energy Wright wanted from the character of Envy Adams,
the ex-girlfriend of Michael Cera's Scott Pilgrim and lead singer of the successful
rock band The Clash at Demonhead, making good use of Larson's experience as a musician.
Even though "Scott Pilgrim vs. the World" didn't perform well at the box office,
its cult following has kept her portrayal of Envy Adams alive, with Vulture heralding
The Clash at Demonhead as one of the best fake rock bands in cinematic history. Fortunately,
Larson will be returning to the role with the rest of the film's cast for a Netflix animated series,
proving that Larson's performance is as irreplaceable as it gets.
Even though Larson could've easily chased the Envy Adams fame, her career naturally
gravitated towards independent films. Following "Scott Pilgrim vs. the World,"
Larson starred in the drama film "Rampart" opposite Woody Harrelson. This time around,
the connection she felt to her character, like the one she had with Kate from "United States
of Tara," didn't showcase Larson's best habits as an actor. As she told The Los Angeles Times,
the consequence of playing the emotionally intense role meant it took her three times
as long to get out of that depression as it did to just do the scenes.
It wasn't long before Larson became an indie darling, even with films like an adaptation of
Douglas Light's book "The Trouble with Bliss," which critics felt was a step down from the
source material. Around this time, Larson also dipped her toe into responsibilities
behind the camera. In 2012, she co-wrote and co-directed the short film "The Arm" with Jessie
Ennis and Sarah Ramos, which was awarded the Special Jury Prize at Sundance that year. It
was becoming clear to the industry as a whole that Larson was someone to keep their eye on.
The comedic timing Larson perfected on "The Tonight Show with Jay Leno" didn't go to waste
during these indie darling years, either. Larson played a prominent role in the 2012
studio comedy "21 Jump Street," based on the late 1980s TV show of the same name. This time around,
Larson's talent didn't go unnoticed, with one reviewer for Slate, writing,
"Brie Larson [...] is a find of major proportions as Schmidt's goofy love interest."
She also guest-starred in a couple of episodes of Seasons 4 and 5 of
NBC's "Community" as Rachel, a romantic interest for Danny Pudi's TV-obsessed Abed.
However, Brie's breakout role came as a result of her dramatic talent, with Destin Daniel Cretton's
"Short Term 12" in 2013. After an audition over Skype, Larson was cast as Grace, the supervisor
for a home of troubled teens who is also dealing with her own unresolved trauma. The film contains
many soon-to-be stars of the late 2010s, including Rami Malek, LaKeith Stanfield, and Kaitlyn Dever,
but it speaks to Larson's powerful performance that she's the standout of the film.
"Short Term 12" quickly became Larson's most notable performance, even being nominated
for an Independent Spirit Award in 2014. A reviewer for The Telegraph correctly
predicted Larson's eventual success, writing of her acting in "Short Term 12",
"Larson in particular gives a performance (sweet,
sad and strong) that marks her out for a stellar career."
However, not even they could've anticipated what would come next for Larson.
2015 became a turning point for Larson's career in Hollywood, as she became an even more recognizable
star. In the years leading up to 2015, her profile began to grow with minor appearances
in films like appearances in films like "The Spectacular Now," "Don Jon," and "The Gambler,"
all of which continued to earn her acclaim as an up-and-coming star. Still, Larson was eager
to showcase the comedic timing she had been so proud of learning years ago as a child actor.
One of these efforts was "Digging for Fire," a comedy starring Jake Johnson and Rosemarie DeWitt
as a couple who find evidence of a dead body in their backyard and rope in their close friends to
investigate. The film notably lacked a script. It was shot over 15 days based on a two-page outline
written by Johnson and director Joe Swanberg, with actors encouraged to improvise dialogue and come
up with their characters' backstories. Larson's role as Max was originally intended to have
romantic chemistry with Johnson's, but Larson's own contributions to the story nixed that.
Also in 2015, Larson starred in Amy Schumer's "Trainwreck" as the lead actress' sister. While
Schumer's character struggles with commitment in relationships, Larson plays devil's advocate as a
happily married woman. In fact, her husband in the film is played by comedian Mike Birbiglia,
who also starred alongside Larson in "Digging for Fire," keeping her in the company of good comedy.
While "Digging for Fire" was liked by critics and "Trainwreck" was a box office success,
Larson's other film in 2015 earned the actress her best reviews yet. That film was "Room,"
directed by Lenny Abrahamson and based on Emma Donoghue's 2010 book. In the film,
Larson stars as Joy, a young woman who is held captive for seven years,
bearing her captor's son during that time, played by Jacob Tremblay.
Like many of her previous roles, Larson committed fully to getting into the mind
of this incredibly traumatic role. With the help of a nutritionist,
Larson adopted a strict diet to portray Joy and isolated herself in her own
apartment. Describing the production process, she told Vancouver City News,
"It took a lot to recoup at the end of the day. I needed a lot of sleep."
Even though this proved to be an exhausting endeavor for the actress,
it paid off in dividends, with critics raving about her and Tremblay's harrowing performances.
The film was an awards darling in the 2015-2016 season,
with Larson winning the Academy Award for Best Actress at only 26 years old.
In her acceptance speech, she took the moment to thank audiences for their acceptance of her,
stressing the importance of movie fans in the film industry. For someone at the pinnacle
of fully-fledged movie stardom, Larson expressed a warm humility in this speech.
"Room" made Larson a household name seemingly overnight,
as she also secured a Golden Globe and BAFTA win for her performance in the movie. Nevertheless,
she was hesitant to accept a similar role or be pigeonholed by playing a traumatized mother,
instead opting to embrace her newfound status as an international movie star. In 2016,
she hosted "Saturday Night Live," once again proving that even as
an acclaimed dramatic actress, she possessed unparalleled comedic talent.
Larson continued to embrace her potential as a movie star, following up "Room" with the 2017
film "Kong: Skull Island." In it, she plays Mason Weaver, an investigative photojournalist who joins
the expedition to find the legendary King Kong in an attempt to expose the cruelty of humans
towards nature. Unlike previous "King Kong" films, Larson's character isn't defined as the beautiful
damsel-in-distress who gets kidnapped by the giant ape. In an interview with Vanity Fair, she said,
"I thought it was fun that I didn't have to be this pristine creature."
Some critics considered this a step down for the actress,
despite Larson's enthusiasm for the film. An article for The Washington
Post about actresses' struggles with aging out of roles writes about Larson,
"One year you're winning an Oscar for [...] an emotionally demanding drama;
the next, you're [...] gasping your way through a great big monkey movie."
But Larson would prove them wrong by showing that she could be a strong blockbuster lead.
Shortly after Brie Larson skyrocketed into success following "Room," she was introduced
at San Diego Comic-Con in 2016 as the latest addition to the Marvel Cinematic Universe.
"Captain Marvel herself, Brie Larson!"
Larson was set to star as Carol Danvers, the very first female superhero to lead her own solo
film in the MCU with 2019's "Captain Marvel." Despite Larson's eagerness to chase success,
the role was not without its responsibilities: She said in
an InStyle interview that she was attracted to the role due to Danvers' strength, explaining,
"She's not ever shrinking herself down."
The film was also quite different from Marvel's typical style at the time. Coming off the heels
of 2018's superhero tragedy "Avengers: Infinity War," "Captain Marvel" turned back the clock to
the mid-1990s, when Carol Danvers becomes the first superhero contact of Samuel L. Jackson's
Nick Fury, and eventually a hero for the refugee shapeshifters known as Skrulls. The role required
Larson to adopt a superhero physique in real-life, involving a nine-month physical training regimen.
Thankfully, Larson's effort paid off, with critics praising the film for
its originality amongst growing superhero fatigue in the Marvel universe. According
to one review for The New Yorker, that's all thanks to the film's heroine, stating,
"Praise be to Larson, for reminding us that [superhero films] can be bringers of fun."
Although the actress also faced sexist criticism from some comic book fans,
the praise for her role was probably enough to tune it out.
"Captain Marvel" marked the third on-screen collaboration between Larson and Samuel
L. Jackson, as the two had previously starred together in 2017's "Kong: Skull Island." However,
long before "Captain Marvel" was even shot, Larson recruited Jackson for her directorial debut,
"Unicorn Store," which premiered at the Toronto International Film Festival in 2017,
where it was bought by Netflix and released on their streaming service later in 2019.
Along with directorial duties, Larson also stars as Kit, an artist who is offered by a mysterious
salesman to own a unicorn if she accomplishes a certain number of specific requirements. Not
only was the role close to Larson's heart, but it was a project that had been a long
time coming. Prior to signing on as director, Larson auditioned for the film in 2012 but didn't
land it. When it came back around following the success of "Room" with the option to direct it,
she took it as her chance to show Hollywood her untapped filmmaking skills.
Unfortunately, critics were split on the final product, with some praising its earnestness and
depiction of femininity, while others criticized its lack of consistent tone. However, some critics
correctly noted that Larson showed potential behind the camera, with ScreenDaily writing,
"Larson navigates through a cute story's
clear limitations to deliver a film that's often quite funny."
Larson's career was on a steady incline around the release of "Captain Marvel,"
with the actress reprising her role in 2019's "Avengers: Endgame." However, everything came
to a halt in 2020, when the COVID-19 pandemic forced Hollywood into shutdown. It ended up
giving Larson a necessary break from acting. Having turned 30 years old and noticing she
was being offered lots of roles reminiscent of "Room," she told Harper's Bazaar in 2023,
"I had all the same normal fears as everybody else about being single and being 30."
Larson didn't spend the pandemic in hiding,
however, and chose instead to remain closely connected to her online fanbase.
"Hi, I'm Brie Larson…ugh, God. Hi."
This resulted in her starting her own YouTube channel, where she posted workout vlogs, Q&As,
and even tours of her island in perhaps the best quarantine video game, "Animal Crossing:
New Horizons." In 2021, Larson also started her own podcast with Jessie Ennis, "Learning Lots,"
which featured guests such as former co-stars like Jacob Tremblay and Melissa McCarthy.
The pandemic even led to her own fans discovering Larson's musical past after the actress began
posting guitar covers on her social media pages, including "the 1" by Taylor Swift and even her own
former The Clash at Demonhead cut "Black Sheep." In a time when Hollywood was stuck in limbo,
Larson remained ever so relevant online, before finally making her big-screen return in 2023.
Off-screen, Larson has been an advocate for social change
and women's rights. This has resulted in some pretty controversial moments from the actress,
including one instance when she opted not to applaud Casey Affleck after presenting
him the Academy Award for best actor in 2017, following sexual assault allegations
against him. When questioned about the action by Vanity Fair, she asserted,
"I think that whatever it was that I did onstage kind of spoke for itself."
Things got more heated for Larson in 2019, when, during press for "Captain Marvel," she
advocated for more diversity among film critics and journalists, resulting in the review-bombing
of her MCU debut. The criticism has continued to follow her to this day, despite efforts of
review aggregate Rotten Tomatoes to deter this type of targeted trolling. Larson has remained
vocal about what she believes in, telling Jane Fonda in an interview with Net-a-Porter,
"It doesn't feel right to be quiet."
To this day, Larson remains a strong advocate for social justice. She was one of 300 women
who organized the Time's Up initiative to protest sexual harassment in Hollywood,
and has been a vocal supporter of issues like inclusion, transgender rights,
and law enforcement accountability. Although her role in the Marvel Cinematic Universe has
her wearing colorful superhero outfits, it's her activism that's really heroic.
2023 is a big year for Larson, especially with her role as Captain Marvel. She last
portrayed the character in the mid-credits scene of 2021's "Shang-Chi and the Legend of
the Ten Rings," directed by her former "Short Term 12" and "Just Mercy" collaborator Destin
Daniel Cretton. She also made a cameo in a post-credits scene at the end of the Disney+
series "Ms. Marvel," teasing her story in the upcoming 2023 MCU film, "The Marvels."
Most recently, Larson entered the "Fast & Furious" franchise in "Fast X," joining an
ensemble cast that includes Vin Diesel, Jason Momoa, and Michelle Rodriguez. "Fast X" is a
relatively small role for Larson compared to "The Marvels," which finds Carol Danvers taking
the lead for the first time since 2019's "Captain Marvel," although this time she won't be alone.
"The Marvels" will team up Larson's Danvers with two other MCU heroines:
Iman Vellani's Captain Marvel superfan Kamala Khan from "Ms. Marvel," as well as Monica Rambeau from
2021's "WandaVision," portrayed by Teyonah Parris. The film finds the trio of heroes
swapping places every time they use their powers, which may tie back to Carol's past with the Kree.
It's one of the most highly-anticipated films of 2023, which likely comes as a surprise to Larson.
"How long will you play Captain Marvel for?"
"I don't know. I don't know, does anyone want me to do it again?"
The short answer: Yes, they do.