This week's Music Monday is very special to me. Before Brie Larson won an Oscar, before she was Captain Marvel, she had a little song on Disney Channel called "She Said." This song featured highly on my various pump-up playlists in high school, especially those I listened to before my college auditions. The lyrics and the music video were everything to me. They were exactly how I was feeling in my acting career. Never the lead in high school, not the prom queen or the cheer captain. I was, or I felt like I was, the constant runner-up, feeling extraordinary, dying to be recognized as such.
This song made that feel possible. I felt seen. It gave me courage.
Then I heard Brie Larson's interview on The Nerdist, a podcast by Chris Hardwick. This was sometime in high school? I was amazed and excited to hear that this woman, already a hero of mine, was successful! She was taking charge, writing scripts, and making movies with her friends when they couldn't get others to make them. Her film was even winning festival awards. Brie had manifested exactly what she'd sung in her song years before.
And then she won an Oscar for Room! And THEN she killed it as Captain Marvel! I was so proud of her as a fan and in such awe of my role model. I listen to this song, and it's like a promise, telling me if I keep at it, I can do it, too.
So thank you, Brie Larson, for being my inspiration, cheerleader, and hero.