“That gap was really about me being 'normal' as best I could,” Wallis said. “I was in high school and I was playing sports and I was on the dance team, just living life. But I was still auditioning and that's what made that gap harder for me, because I was back in a normal environment. No one treated me like someone… important.”
She laughed knowingly. “They just allowed me to be me, they allowed me to find who I was as a person,” she continued. “So I'm grateful for this break because I wouldn't have been this person if it wasn't for that. I don't know who I would have been if I'd kept working all this time and made it here. I don't think I'd be the person I would be if that happened. “.
Now that Wallis is here, though, she's still figuring out how to better balance her career and private life.
“I can't even lie to you, I'm still learning!” she said “It's been 10 years, I'm still trying to get there.”
But she does know that if she could, she'd tell a 9-year-old Oscar nominee not to take the whole Hollywood thing, or herself, so seriously.
“Not everyone really cares what you're doing or what you look like,” Wallis said. “Everyone is so involved with their own lives, so you can't hold them to your standards. Just be all of you and don't let what to think other people are watching or wondering [get to you]. It just doesn't. Be you.”
breathe now playing in theaters and available via digital and On Demand.
And while you're pondering Wallis' wise words, read on to see what happened next for more child actors who wowed in Oscar-nominated films:
