FROM 'UNDERDOG' TO OSCAR NOMINEE

THE VIETNAMESE REFUGEE WAS ONCE SO SHY, SHE STRUGGLED TO SPEAK TO OTHERS. NOW SHE'S ON A ROLL IN HOLLYWOOD

- ERIC ANDERSSON

Hong Chau didn't intend to get up early on Jan. 24 to see the Oscar nominations announced live on TV. But with a 2-year-old daughter and an ailing 15-year-old dog, she and her husband were awake by 5 a.m. "We had coffee in bed and watched," she says.

And then her name was called in the Best Supporting Actress category for her performance opposite Brendan Fraser in The Whale. "I couldn't process it," remembers Chau, who celebrated with prosecco and donuts that her husband dashed out to get. Not long after, she adds, "I found myself out in the rain talking to a guy who is going to give us an estimate for foundation repair. So it was a very exciting day and a very normal day."

It was also a day she didn't think would ever come. Chau, 43, who came to the U.S. as a young girl with her parents and two older brothers as refugees from Vietnam, had a long road to become one of Hollywood's most-buzzed-about actresses. She grew up poor and in adulthood battled crippling shyness and an industry that didn't know what to do with her.