Abigail Breslin goes from ‘Little Miss Sunshine’ to stilettos

CHICAGO—Forget the 10-year-old you remember from “Little Miss Sunshine” — Abigail Breslin has grown up.

Breslin, who turns 15 in April, was in Chicago
recently promoting the new animated film “Rango,” looking every inch
the teenager intent on shedding her little girl image in her stiletto
heels and short, black leather skirt.

The adult wardrobe is something of a feint, though.
There’s still a kid inside that sophisticated image, one who puts
“cute” high on her list of reasons she signed up for “Rango,” a spoof
of spaghetti Westerns with Johnny Depp as a lizard who sets out to right a few wrongs. Breslin provides the voice of Priscilla, a mouse he befriends.

“I got a sketch of Priscilla in the mail with a
letter from the director, Gore Verbinski, and basically as soon as I
saw the sketch I fell in love with her,” she said. Verbinski, it would
seem, has a keen understanding of how the teenage mind works.

Breslin was on the multi-city press tour — including stops in Miami, Boston, London, Berlin, Paris and Rome
— suggesting that despite her age, she shoulders some pretty grown-up
obligations. There’s not much sightseeing involved on these trips. Just
a lot of views from hotel rooms. And work — in this case, talking up a
movie in which her character has few lines.

But by now this is old hat for Breslin, who appeared
in a Toys R Us commercial at age 3. By the time she was 5 she had
landed her first movie role, in 2002’s “Signs.” So how does one get
launched into a career at such early age?

“Well, my brother started acting before I did,” she said of 18-year-old Spencer Breslin,
whose credits include “The Happening.” “And then I just started to fall
into it. I really liked doing it, so I kept doing it and I’ve been
really lucky to be able to make movies.”

It’s a sensitive thing, talking to Breslin about her
life as a child actor. But how can you not? There are just too many
former child actors who saw their lives implode in early adulthood to
not consider the potential drawbacks.

And she certainly is aware of the problems that have
plagued some of her contemporaries. The Miley Cyruses, the Demi
Lovatos. But: “I don’t really like to talk about other people. I think
people who have things going on in their lives, I think they have
enough to deal with, they don’t need, you know, Abigail Breslin weighing in on their lives. I feel really lucky that I get to do what I
really like to do, so I’m really grateful that I get to do it.”

And all appearances suggest she is a happy and well-adjusted teenager.

Her family lives in New York City rather than Los Angeles. She has a sweet, unaffected personality, and you don’t sense a Lindsay Lohan-like
trajectory in her future. Breslin’s mother, Kim, was in the room during
the interview and clearly plays a protective role in her daughter’s
professional life.

And how introspective should a 14-year-old really be
about the problems that come with early fame and significant wealth?
(In 2007, she was the youngest to make the Forbes list of Young Hollywood’s Top Earning Stars.) Her interests are much more in line with those of other teenagers.

“In ‘Rango’ there’s somebody from ‘Twilight’ in it — Gil Birmingham — and he played Jacob’s dad, so I was dyyyying,” Breslin said.

“That means he actually met Jacob (Taylor Lautner), which means that he actually met Edward (Robert Pattinson), which means that he actually met Bella (Kristen Stewart). It’s like there’s a direct line — it’s sort of like now I’m best friends with Kristen Stewart.”

Her life is filled with other preoccupations as well. About a year ago Breslin joined Twitter.

“I was doing ‘The Miracle Worker’ on Broadway at the time, so I went on the Jimmy Fallon show and he set up the Twitter account for me on his show and he gave me a choice of three names and I chose yoabbaabba.”

Her posts are upbeat and tend to include a song of the day.

“Sometimes I skip the song of the day and people are
like, ‘Where’s the song of the day?’ And I’m like, ‘I’m sorry I started
this!'”

And around her neck she wears a pair of gold necklaces that read “Stop Texting” and “Look Up.”

“My friend got these for me. I’m always texting, so
that’s why. It was like, ‘Live your life! Stop it, I’m in the room with
you, you don’t have to BBM me!'”

Texting, one suspects, comes in mighty handy when she’s traveling the globe to promote a movie.

“A lot of the time I’m working with people who are older than me,” she said. “I just sort of, I don’t know, I just have fun.”

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(c) 2011, Chicago Tribune.

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