Brie Larson Hasn't Seen or Spoken to Her Dad in 10 Years

— -- Brie Larson is up for an Oscar for her emotionally-wrenching performance of a woman held captive in a garden shed for seven years in the film "Room."

Some of the inspiration for her performance, the 26-year-old actress told Elle in a new interview, comes from her own life and difficult childhood. Larson, whose parents divorced when she was a young girl, hasn't seen or spoken to her father in 10 years.

"When legally I didn't have to have visitation with him anymore, I jumped on it," she told the magazine. "As a kid I tried to understand him and understand the situation. But he didn't do himself any favors. I don't think he ever really wanted to be a parent. It wasn't until truly recently that I realized that's why so much of my work was so volatile."

She explained, "All of the stuff I wasn't dealing with in my actual life -- all of this anger, my fears and my vulnerabilities -- I didn't feel comfortable expressing because I felt like it was part of the human code that when we're out in the public space, everyone's perfect and good, and we're all nice women, and we dress well and we brush our hair and agree with these customs."

Now Larson is considered the front-runner to win the Academy Award for best actress when the Oscars are handed out Feb. 28. She talked about the unbelievable position she now finds herself in while recalling a weekend last November when she spent 12-hour days doing pre-awards publicity with some of her fellow nominees.

"It was crazy. It was pretty much, like, Helen Mirren, Cate Blanchett, Saoirse Ronan, and me," she told Elle. "Then Jennifer Lawrence came in for a little bit, and Kate Winslet, Carey Mulligan. But it was kind of all that group, with all of these different press things that we had to do. You're having meals together, and doing these roundtables -- I felt like I was hallucinating. Most of those people I'd never met before, so it was like the moment when you're not at the kid's table anymore: Wow, not only am I sitting with these legends, but Kate Winslet saw me and ran across the room and grabbed me and with such a beautiful intensity said, 'I am so f**ing excited for you!' I love her."

The 88th Academy Awards will air at 7 p.m. ET on Feb. 28, 2016 on ABC.