Naomie Harris "couldn’t cope" with watching the Oscar nominations live.
The 40-year-old actress – who received a nod in the Best Supporting Actress category for her portrayal of Paula in ‘Moonlight’ – admits she was too nervous to tune in to the broadcast as it happened but was thrilled when she found out the film had secured eight nominations overall.
She said: "I was at home with my mum, and I started to watch the announcement, but I couldn’t cope with the anticipation of it all. My brother called to say I had been nominated."
Asked how she celebrated her nomination, she added: "I was just having a lovely walk. It was very grounding."
And Naomie is amazed by how well the movie – which also stars Mahershala Ali, who too received a nod for his role in the film – has been received.
She added to The Times: "You really never know in this crazy business what’s going to resonate with people. What I did know is that I read the script, and it made me cry three or four times. I knew it was such a beautiful film, and I knew from Barry [Jenkins’] previous film, ‘Medicine for Melancholy,’ that he was an extraordinary filmmaker.
"Whether or not people responded to it the way I did, you can never know that. Everyone who signed on for it did it because it was a passion project."
Meanwhile, director Barry Jenkins – who was honoured in the Best Director category – was "moved beyond words" by the film’s number of nominations.
He added in a statement: "It takes a village and this morning I was moved beyond words by the love that was shown by the Academy to so many of the wonderful people in our Moonlight village.
"I’m in Amsterdam at the moment, sharing Chiron’s story a continent away with people of a different culture. That’s what the spirit of these nominations signals to me: an affirmation that film has the power to erode barriers and reveal what makes us all human."
Naomie Harris’ Oscar nomination nerves
