Brie Larson: 'Awkward teenage auditions made me stronger'

Actress Brie Larson's inner strength was tested as a teenager by confusing criticism from casting directors.

The 26-year-old may be the front runner for the Best Actress award at this year's (16) Oscars thanks to her star turn in the movie Room, but growing up, she faced the soul-shattering auditioning process which can make or break many young actors.

"You get notes about being too nice or being too dark," she told People magazine. "Being too tall, too brown-eyed. Being too girl next door, or being too eccentric. You have to take a lot of time to pull those things apart and figure out, 'What is helping me? What is something I can take and say, I can trust that. What is something that is not useful advice and I'm going to let go?'"

Brie admits the harsh criticism often came at the wrong time, when her teenage hormones were already all over the place and proving quite a lot to deal with on their own.

But while many of her peers found the experience too much, Brie somehow managed to find a way to push on with her acting dreams and now credits the experience with making her the performer she is today.

"That was 20 years of trial and error, and trying to grow up and go through puberty as well was really a complicated and awkward situation," she added. "You have a bunch of people every day telling you what you are and what you're not. And a lot of times it doesn't match with how you see yourself at all. Now I look back on it fondly because it made me every single time solidify who I was. And every time I solidified who I was, it made me more comfortable becoming other characters."