Abigail Breslin talks about American Girl movie
Posted by Lorrie Lynch
Abigail Breslin (at left) already is an Oscar-nominated pro — and she's in nearly every frame of the coming summer movie Kit Kittredge: An American Girl — but, refreshingly, she remains a kid even as she wrangles dozens of reporters who seem bent on finding a flaw in her demeanor. Our Nancy Mills watched Breslin handle the press with ease at the film's Hollywood junket a few days ago. She talked fast and confidently about what it was like playing a 10-year-old in Depression-era America. Nancy says Breslin giggles a lot and keeps her answers short and child-like. Asked about her red carpet walk at last year's Oscars, Breslin says, "It was really fun. My friends didn't care that much, which was really cool." The word "fun" pops up in her conversation a lot. "It's fun to do all that stuff." "I'm having fun with it (my career)." Read more about Breslin and her Kit Kittredge role below.
Kit director Patricia Rozema says, "For Abigail, acting is as natural as breathing. She's very gifted. There's a wisdom in her eyes, a depth to her feeling and a freshness to her humor. I don't think she'll be stuck in child-land. She's not just playing the cute card.
"Abigail is a very stable kid, and her parents are very involved. Often, kids who are neglected emotionally act out in self-destructive ways. She's surrounded by a lot of love and guidance."
Breslin chooses her roles (with a lot of help from her parents and advisers) by "seeing if the person is someone I'd like to know," she explains, idly fingering her Aries pendant. Later, she bends down her thumb to show she's double-jointed.
As for wanting to live in the 1930s, the era of Kit Kittredge, Breslin will have none of it. "I wouldn't be used to not having my phone, computer and iPod," she says. "When we had a blackout in New York, it was a very dark time."
The typewriter Kit uses puzzled her. "I wanted to know where the screen was," Breslin says. "And I had to hit the keys hard." Breslin doesn't see herself becoming a budding reporter, the ambition of her character Kit. "Kit takes a lot of notes," she says. "I think I'd lose track of mine."
When someone asked Breslin how she was going to stay away from drugs and alcohol as she matured, she seemed confused. The best she could come up with was: "I don't know. I don't think about that stuff." And don't expect her to badmouth any fellow actors. "We have a rule in our family," she says. "We can't gossip about other people."
While she waits for more scripts to come her way, Breslin is heading off for a vacation on Prince Edward Island. "Then I'm having a sleepover with my friends and cousins. No actors are coming."
(photo by Cylla von Tiedemann/Picturehouse)
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