Stars of 'Akeelah'

Not only did Keke have to shine in her first film role while sharing screen time with two Oscar-nominated actors, she also had to spell some really difficult words.

"My mom, my sisters and my dad helped me study for the words," Keke says. "My sister was 16 at the time, I was 11, and she threw a little spelling bee. We would take all the words from the script and would spell them together. Whoever won would get $10…so I won."

Was Keke ever intimidated by her famous co-stars? "At first I was a little scared [of Laurence] because I've seen The Matrix," she says. "I was like, 'Well, my God. This is going to be Morpheus!' But then when I met him, he was so nice. We joked around and had fun."