Master of the Silent Treatment

6:00 AM PST 1/31/2012 by Stephen Galloway , Rebecca Leffler

In an Oscar season of breakouts, none has been bigger than "The Artist" and its stars as Jean Dujardin, one of France's top actors, keeps landing honors -- though American stardom may be more elusive.

As a child, Jean Dujardin struggled with words. "I wasn't dyslexic, I was just very slow," he recalls. "I passed my time daydreaming. They called me 'Jean de la lune' (Jean of the moon) because I didn't concentrate, I didn't listen." The actor's parents were so concerned, they even sent him to various psychotherapists, but he says, "I was just in my own world."