Gabriel LaBelle, who played an adolescent Steven Spielberg in his autobiographical film, The Fabelmans, won best young performer at the Critics Choice Awards 2023. 

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The 20-year-old, whose category was presented off-screen, bested fellow nominated actors including Frankie Corio for Aftersun, Jalyn Hall for Till, Bella Ramsey for Catherine Called Birdy, Banks Repeta for Armageddon Time, and Sadie Sink for The Whale. LaBelle’s award was announced offscreen, making him one of the winners whose acceptance remarks will likely be relegated to social media. 

“Nobody knows how he behaved 60 years ago,” LaBelle told Vanity Fair about the pressures of playing an iconic Oscar-winning filmmaker. “But I could see through [some of the] 8mm footage that he took of his family and that he appeared in sometimes how he walked and moved around. I noticed that he smiles differently than I do. I kind of wanted to look like him [and] makeup and hair did so much. But it was about making sure that I could have [Sam] feel what [Steven] thought he was feeling in that time.”

If there was one direction LaBelle received in emulating Spielberg, who won the best directing award at the Golden Globes 2023 just last week, it was too be less “whiny,” LaBelle told VF. . “He would say, ‘I despise self-pity and that’s not what I’m or have ever been about. And so I don’t think you’d be doing that.’ And that clued me into his whole life,” the actor remembered. “He has such a strong work ethic, he’s so successful, he works hard, and he’s so obsessed with this medium. So he doesn’t have time to feel bad for himself. He just gets things done. That was the one thing that gave me more insight into him. I can [now] understand why [Steven] wanted to make those movies. I’ll never fully understand him, but I definitely feel like I know him a little better than most people.”

Critics Choice Awards’ young performer award dates back to 1996 with past winners including Jude Hill for Belfast, Alan Kim for Minari, Hailee Steinfeld for True Grit, and Dev Patel for Slumdog Millionaire.