I don't know if she is super positive I think that she is just without negativity - I don't think that that necessarily means you are positive. I was super negative in high school so I think that she definitely has more fun in high school that I did.
- How did you find working alongside Laura Linney?
I love Laura Linney! First of all she is the most normal and sweetest person that I have ever met but she is insanely talented - I have never been able to go to acting class - so I would look at scenes with her as being the best acting school ever.
She is so very talented and I watched her like a hawk in every scene, I really loved being in scenes with her, because I would get so much information from her - I can't really pinpoint what I'm learning but I am learning a lot.
- You are playing someone who is a decade younger than yourself in the show so did that pose any challenges?
Not really (laughs) I have always been really immature - my best friend on set is Gabriel Basso, who plays Adam, he is sixteen and we hang out constantly. So being crazily immature means it's not hard for me to be a teenager because I remember those days very very clearly.
- Do you think that The Big C is for a female audience or do you think that men can relate as well?
I think a lot of men are able to relate to this story and I that is because it is about life and about time - and that is something that we can all relate to, we can all relate to running out of time whether that be in a day, a month, an hour, or our life.
- The Big C is a comedy project and is very different from the hard hitting Precious so how purposefully were you looking for a different genre and a different type of role.
I wasn't really looking for a completely different role of anything like that. The Precious story is like one in a million so I wasn't looking for a different type of role I was just looking for a role in the next step of my career.
And while the role of Andrea is different one is not more difficult to play that the other... thankfully.
- How have viewers related and responded to the issues that are raised in the show - have you had lots of feedback?
Yeah I have. I hear a lot of feedback from people who have battled cancer themselves and say that there reactions to it were some of the same ways as Cathy has reacted to it.
I have also heard from people who have had family members or friends pass from cancer who can relate - I actually know a gentleman who is fighting cancer at the moment and he loves the series he thinks it's hilarious; he watches while he is having his chemo treatment.
- Are you someone who lives for today or plans from the future?
I don't really plan for the future, I really don't. If you were to ask me where I wanted to be in five years I have no idea because if you'd have asked me five years ago what I would be doing now then I would have been completely wrong.
So I kind of like to float through life, not like I'm blind or anything, I like to make sound decisions but I don't really plan anything - I plan trips and that's it. I feel that you can't really plan life as it just moves on its own - you just have to surrender to it.
- What have you learnt from being on the show - what has it taught you?
It has taught me that we are all running out of time (laughs) - when we all started the show the company gave us a gift of little clocks - the entire show is about time; how much she has left and how much she is losing.
It really made me appreciate my life more and my family, my friends and all the good things in my life because I am running out of time to experience them.
- Ten years ago The Big C is perhaps a show that would have been impossible to make because of the subject that it covers so easier is it becoming for TV to tackle more challenging issues?
In a lot of ways I think that TV is competing with cinema, shows are getting so much better know and we are now able to talk about more topics.
For me I don't know what the real difference is - why you talk about a subject in a movie but not every week on TV - but I am glad that TV has taken a leap.
I think that Showtime has been very brave with the shows that it has had on and we talk about a lot of subjects that aren't necessarily spoken about - which is a good thing.
- You burst onto the scene with Precious so how does it feel to know that you will always be seen as an Academy Award nominated actress?
Pretty damn good! That feels kind of awesome, because of Precious I will be seen as a few other things for the rest of my life; some good, some bad. But to be seen as an Academy Award nominated actress is definitely a badge of honour.
The Big C is out on DVD now
FemaleFirst Helen Earnshaw
Tagged in Gabourey Sidibe