Gabourey Sidibe beat up bully in junior high

Actress Gabourey Sidibe once lost her temper and beat up a classmate at school because she could no longer tolerate his cruel bullying.

The 29 year old overcame much adversity to land an Academy Award nomination in 2009 for her turn in Precious and she's since become one of the most popular rising stars in Hollywood.

But the plus-size African-American actress admits life hasn't always been easy and she was often teased for her looks growing up, with students taunting her for her dark skin by calling her "midnight".

In a candid chat on The Conservation With Amanda de Cadenet, which aired on Thursday (24May12), she said, "I was made fun of a lot... I was a huge cry baby... but crying never kept people from making fun of me and crying never kept away any of the bad feelings so I had to learn how to deal with it. My strength came from weakness in a lot of ways... because I just got so tired. It was like being beaten, that's what made me start to stand up for myself."

And Sidibe sheepishly confesses she once took matters into her own hands and beat up a male classmate - as a way to temporarily put a stop to the bullying pain.

She continued, "There was one kid in junior high, he was really, really short and he would bully me so, so, so much. And now that I'm an adult I can see that it comes from his own insecurity and his own inability to fit in. I was the nicest girl but he would pick on me so much, he threw paper balls at me and I kind of just let it happen. I mean I would cry and I would get really upset but I didn't know what to do. I couldn't say stop it. And then we had an altercation. And I tore into him like a tornado. And that's what stopped it. Beating that kid up really, really worked... it solved the problem for a split second... It solved the problem with him."