Abigail Breslin always knew it’d come to this.
She’d grown up on movie sets, thanks to her older brother, Spencer Breslin, who at 8 starred alongside Bruce Willis in Disney’s “The Kid.” While her brother mugged for the camera, little Abbie sat quietly, until one day she got the call.
M. Night Shyamalan was on the hunt for a New Yorker to play Mel Gibson’s daughter in “Signs.” When Abbie’s mom, Kim, heard the news, she turned to her 4-year-old to see if she’d be interested in auditioning.
“Yes,” Abbie said, after a moment. “I’m ready.” There’s no question the freshly minted star has talent. Her performance in this summer’s indie of choice, “Little Miss Sunshine,” drew glowing reviews. There’s talk that the 10-year-old ingenue is poised to take over the throne of Junior Hollywood, long ruled by Dakota Fanning, who, at 12, is getting up there.
The film follows an emotionally fractured family as it road-
trips to Redondo Beach, Calif., where its tiniest member, 7-year-old Olive, will compete for the crown of Little Miss Sunshine. Along the way, Abbie holds her own among the cast’s heavy-hitting players – Alan Arkin, Steve Carell, Toni Collette and Greg Kinnear, among others.
“Her performance was so consistent,” said Valerie Faris, who directed the film with her husband, Jonathan Dayton. “There’s just never a false moment with her. She never missed a beat, and that’s just unheard of with child actors.”
Faris and Dayton immediately sensed that gift in Abbie a few years ago while watching her on “The Tonight Show With Jay Leno,” where she had joined her brother Spencer in promoting “The Santa Clause 2.” “She was so full of life,” Dayton said, adding that, more than lively, she appeared utterly focused on her conversation with Leno; the ability to listen is rare among child actors.
Abbie came off, not as a rehearsed, buffed and packaged performer, but “as a little girl having a good time,” Faris said. The Breslins have worked hard to shelter their children from the industry’s sharp edges, she said, and it shows.
Despite the media’s fawn-fest and her classic child-actor entourage – parent, stylist and publicist – Abbie seemed refreshingly untouched by Hollywood as she recently noshed on French bread in a cafe. In the stream-of-consciousness patter of youth, Abbie explained how her playground of choice is a forest in New Jersey, where the summer goal of catching two frogs remains high on her to-do list, how she adores salt-and-vinegar potato chips, and how the ’80s were a really cool decade.
Abbie was born April 1996.
“I know. I just missed them,” she said, shaking her head and taking a moment to mourn the loss of punk rock, plastic jewelry and side-ponytails.
When put in front of a photographer, she didn’t bat her lashes or adopt a coy pout. Instead, she called to her mom. “How should I pose?” she asked, before throwing her arms straight into the air and flashing her slightly gap-toothed grin.
Abbie’s “Sunshine” character, Olive, is pudgy, bespectacled and plain. In real life, Abbie is bright-eyed with doll-like features and a fresh-scrubbed glow.
How did she feel about carrying a feature film at such a young age? “It wasn’t that scary for me. I thought it was just, like, you know, like, fun. It was just, like, you know, going to work, pretty much,” she said, giggling at the absurdity of such a statement coming from a 10-year-old. “Yep, just going to work.” Abbie and her mom will now return to the family’s modest apartment, deep in New York’s East Village.
“It’s nice to come out here; you want to help promote the project. But when it’s all done, it’s best to go home. Take out the garbage,” Kim Breslin said. “Besides, how do you play a kid if you don’t live like one?”
