Precious director Lee Daniels and star Gabourey Sibide took part in an onstage interview this past weekend as part of the New York Times Arts & Leisure fest, and Jezebel's got a wonderful summary of the event:

[Gabourey Sibide] was wearing a floral top, black pants and turquoise sneakers. She giggled a lot, and sometimes snorted when she laughed....[moderator Patricia Cohen] asked Gabby where her confidence comes from—parents? Family? Gabby replied: "I don't think my brand of confidence can come from an outside source. I have to find it in myself. I have two little sisters who are 13 and they're just at that age where they're about to hate themselves. I do it for them. They think I'm pretty, and I want them to think they're pretty." She also admitted that there was a time that she felt sad because the world didn't find her beautiful, but then she realized: "I am the world."

The movie Precious has been dissected and discussed at length, and much has been made of how the character Precious is decidedly not Gabby Sidibe. It was made even more apparent when Gabby said, bemused and confident: "People trip over themselves to tell me I'm beautiful. It's cute. It's cute, but I'm not buying it. I'm beautiful now because you can buy a ticket to see me on a screen? I was beautiful before."

Read the whole thing here.