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Child star of 'Little Miss Sunshine' takes turn in adventure flick
2008-03-21
Pint-sized charmer Abigail Breslin turns 12 next month, but boasts a resume that is the envy of Hollywood veterans many years her senior, including a nomination for a coveted Oscar award. Breslin already has worked on some 15 films, including a starring turn in the 2006 movie "Little Miss Sunshine," for which she earned her Academy award nomination. In that sleeper hit, Breslin played a determined if unlikely, would-be child beauty pageant contestant, coping with her endearingly dysfunctional family. Her latest project, "Nim's Island," set to hit US movie screens next month, is a fantasy adventure about a young girl lost at sea with her scientist father. "It's about a girl and her father who live on an island that nobody knows about. It's not on any map whatsoever," she told reporters at a Beverly Hills hotel at a press conference in advance of the movie's debut. Breslin also has been cast as Kit Kittredge in the "American Girl" movie, inspired by the popular line of historical dolls and accessories. She comes across as being less assured than the precocious youngsters she plays on screen, and, unlike many child actors in Hollywood, is accompanied to most film sets and press conferences by her ever-vigilant mother. Breslin's outsized talent, and her ability to hold her own against the movie industry's most celebrated stars, has cemented her status as one of Hollywood's best-paid child actors. In "Nim's Island" she plays opposite Hollywood powerhouse Jodie Foster, one of many luminaries she's shared the screen with during her short career. Foster, once a child star herself, said she knows well the pitfalls of the profession for an underage actor, but said Breslin is a gifted natural when she's on-screen, and refreshingly grounded when she's not. "She has something that I don't have, or I didn't have as a young person: she has strong access to her emotions," Foster said at a press roundtable commenting on her young co-star's acting technique. "She's really going to be an actress, and I didn't really have that, at her age." Foster added: "I didn't give her any advice about how to deal as a young star, she's a very clear and clever girl, and she has always her family to back her." A native New Yorker who has been in front of the camera since the age of three, Breslin hails from a family of actors, including her older brother. Spencer Breslin, 15. Abigail Breslin got her start making commercials, and eventually was cast by noted director M. Night Shyamalan to play Mel Gibson's daughter in the 2002 movie "Signs." That was followed by a role in "Raising Helen" (2004), in which she played opposite her brother. Despite rubbing shoulders with Hollywood's A-list, Breslin enjoys ordinary pleasures like doting on her menagerie of assorted pets. Her 11-year-old dislikes include the early-to-bed, early-to-rise routine of most children her age. "I'm not a great fan of waking up early," she said, adding however that being home tutored has given her a reprieve from early school bells. The only fly-in-the-ointment for what appears a brilliant future in film is Breslin's love of animals, including the "two dogs, two cats and a turtle," she keeps at home. The young actress, who wears a photo of one of her pet kittens in a locket around her neck, confesses that she'd like to be a veterinarian when she grows up, and says that her work with animal co-stars was one of the best parts of filming "Nim's Island." "I got to do some stunts, like riding a sea lion, which was really fun," Breslin said. In particular, "I loved the sea lions, just because they come up to get kisses," she gushed.
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