Associated Press

Wellington

After riding from suburban obscurity to international fame on the back of a whale, New Zealand schoolgirl and acting novice Keisha Castle-Hughes was “unsure” whether she wanted to pursue an acting career.

That all changed on Wednesday after her mother shook her awake to tell her she had been named the youngest-ever Oscar best actress nominee for her role as a young girl bucking tradition to lead a Maori tribe in ‘Whale Rider’.

“I’ve always wanted to act and even when I made the movie... I was fulfilling my dream,” Castle-Hughes told. “Now I’m fulfilling my dream in more ways....”

Making movies is now a definite career option for the 13-year-old schoolgirl, who earlier said she found acting “really hard” when the movie ‘Whale Rider’ was launched across the globe.

“I’m not sure what changed my mind. I know I have a passion for acting, so I don’t know why I shouldn’t continue to do it. I’m definitely interested in doing it now,” she said. “At the moment there is nothing in the pipeline and I’m just trying to concentrate on one thing at a time — and this is pretty big,” she added.

“It was a big shock. Even now (14 hours later) it still hasn’t all sunk in,” she said. “I can’t get my head around the fact that it’s the Oscars. It’s something... a Kiwi (New Zealand) girl like myself would never dare dream about.”

Castle-Hughes was plucked from obscurity at 11 to play the leading part in what was her first acting experience in the New Zealand film.

Her performance as a Maori girl who defies tradition to lead a tribe of Maori, New Zealand’s indigenous people, has won praise at film festivals around the world.

Part-Maori, Castle-Hughes even lied about being able to swim to director Nicki Caro so she could get the lead part in the small-budget movie that has charmed audiences across the globe. “I still can’t swim,” she said.

It “was kind of strange” working with a fake whale for the movie’s climactic final scenes, “but I’d never seen a real whale anyway so it wasn’t that bad,” she added.

Castle-Hughes said her mother will accompany her to the Oscars ceremony on February 29, while her two bothers and sister, together with an aunt and uncle “and my boyfriend... are all coming to America, but not to the Oscars.”