Aria Mia Loberti has had her fair share of pinch-hitting moments since her incredible rise to stardom last year.
Loberti, 30, made her debut as Maire-Laure LeBlanc in the Netflix film All the light we can’t see, a four-part series adapted from Anthony Doerr’s novel of the same name. After the series premiered in November, Loberti’s portrayal of one of the story’s protagonists—a blind young woman living in World War II France who forms an unusual relationship with a German soldier—earned critical acclaim and earned her an A-list fan following.
Jodie Foster was one such fan, and Loberti tells PEOPLE that she “spent [her] looking at the whole childhood [Foster] and to admire her”, that’s how the actress’s praise for the series left everyone stunned.
“I died,” revealed Loberti while attending the Independent Spirit Awards nominations brunch in Santa Monica, Calif., on Saturday. She was nominated at this year’s ceremony for her debut role.
“I don’t actually remember what happened because I know I passed out, but I remember her saying that she sat and watched the show and she enjoyed it,” he adds.
She says about the meeting with Nyad star, 61, “I was introduced to her by one of my producers and we talked a little bit on the phone, but I never met her and I didn’t think she would even remember me. So the fact that she not only remembered me, but watched my show… It was so cool.”
Aria Mia Loberti at the 2024 Film Independent Spirit Awards Nominees.
Elyse Jankowski/Variety via Getty
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Loberti also shared her shock at her first nomination for the 2024 Independent Spirit Awards.
“I’m really excited. I think it’s just one of those things that… I didn’t grow up thinking I could be an actor, so I can’t say that I’ve dreamed of being at an awards show or anything all my life, but I really feel like my whole community is behind me.”
She also admits that “nothing” in her life has remained the same since the series premiere and that “it was very devastating.”
“I was always kind of lost and stuck. And for the first time I feel that I have a purpose, and I’m glad that this purpose can bring joy to people. It’s really special.”
She adds: “And I feel like I’m happy for the first time, which is amazing. I didn’t know it would be that, and I’m very grateful that it is.”
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The director of the hit Netflix series, Shawn Levy, previously told PEOPLE that adapting the best-selling book was “a very different kind of storytelling for me,” admitting that he never expected to make a sweeping epic like All the light we can’t see.
“I liked the book, I liked the adaptation. And it’s related to my previous work in that it’s fundamentally – and unabashedly – emotional.”
The Stranger Things The director, 55, added of the show: “It’s unlike anything I’ve ever done. The performances have a very different tone to anything I’ve done. It’s pure period drama.”
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Aria Mia Loberti as Marie-Laure in ‘All the Light We Cannot See’. Katalin Vermes/Netflix
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Although Foster was a big fan of Loberti’s work on the historical miniseries, she openly said she doesn’t like working with younger actors, as she said Deadline that Gen-Z costars can be “really boring.”
On the advice she said she would give to the younger generation on how to improve their behavior in the workplace, she added: “They need to learn how to relax, how to not think about it so much, how to come up with something that’s theirs.”
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Source: HIS Education