Brie Larson: 'My childhood dictates my career choices'

Brie Larson is drawn to "volatile" work because of the huge impact her parents' divorce had on her as a child.

When the star was around seven she travelled to Los Angeles with her mother and sister because she wanted to become an actress. Initially she thought they would only be away for a few weeks, but later Brie realised her parents had divorced - she now hasn't seen or spoken to her father for a decade.

"When legally I didn't have to have visitation with him anymore, I jumped on it," she told Elle magazine. "As a kid I tried to understand him and understand the situation. But he didn't do himself any favors. I don't think he ever really wanted to be a parent. It wasn't until truly recently that I realised that's why so much of my work was so volatile.

"All of the stuff I wasn't dealing with in my actual life - all of this anger, my fears and my vulnerabilities - I didn't feel comfortable expressing because I felt like it was part of the human code that when we're out in the public space, everyone's perfect and good, and we're all nice women, and we dress well and we brush our hair and agree with these customs."

Brie's latest movie, Room, has seen her lauded by critics and she's in the running for the 2016 best actress Oscar for her portrayal of Ma, a woman who is kidnapped and held hostage by the captor she has a child with. She's already received the Golden Globe Award for the role, and she is still struggling to come to terms with how her life has changed.

The 26-year-old star recalled coming face-to-face with several other big-name actresses at a swanky hotel before an awards show late last year (15), admitting it was the kind of pinch-me moment she still can't believe actually happened.

"It was crazy. It was pretty much, like, Helen Mirren, Cate Blanchett, Saoirse Ronan, and me. Then Jennifer Lawrence came in for a little bit, and Kate Winslet, Carey Mulligan..." she recalled. "But it was kind of all that group, with all of these different press things that we had to do. You're having meals together, and doing these roundtables - I felt like I was hallucinating. Most of those people I'd never met before, so it was like the moment when you're not at the kid's table anymore: Wow, not only am I sitting with these legends, but Kate Winslet saw me and ran across the room and grabbed me and with such a beautiful intensity said, 'I am so f**king excited for you!' I love her."