Former “Little Miss Sunshine” star Abigail Breslin still has a bone to pick with Hollywood 18 years after the role that landed her an Oscar nomination for Best Supporting Actress as a 10 year old.
Breslin, in an interview with podcast host and fellow former child star Christy Carlson Romano, made the revelation as they were discussing their experiences growing up.
“That’s the thing I feel about child acting and everything is that, you’re given all of the responsibility but none of the respect,” Breslin said, before Romano laughed in agreement.
“Of a child laborer?” Romano cracked, continuing to laugh.
“The adults, they’re like, ‘We want you to be this way, this way, do this’ — whatever,” Breslin said.
“But your autonomy is like, not really,” Romano interjected.
“Yeah, it’s not really that important,” Breslin said, finishing the thought.
Romano, 39, who was a Disney Channel star as a child, said she thought directors and other production staff who were parents were better prepared to connect with child actors but that they weren’t common.
“They were way nicer to work with,” Romano said. “They could connect with us on a whole different level. But it is interesting. I don’t know if there’s a fix there. I don’t know if there’s a real fix.
“Like, when working with kids you have to have a skill set that makes you? You know?” Romano said, shrugging.
Romano had asked Breslin about her earliest memories of a film or TV set. Breslin was 9 when filming 2006’s “Little Miss Sunshine” but has continued to act, racking up 60 career acting credits. She most recently starred in “Miranda’s Victim,” a film with a stacked cast including Donald Sutherland and Luke Wilson that hit PVOD last week.
Breslin said her earliest recollections came at age 5 during production of the Mel Gibson and Joaquin Phoenix film “Signs.” She recalled being off set with her stand-in — “she was sweet and we became friends” — and didn’t want to return to work when her mother came to get her.
“My mom comes up to me later that day,” Breslin remarked. “She said, ‘Listen, I don’t care if you don’t want to do this, if it’s not fun for you, that’s fine. We have to finish out your commitment, finish shooting the movie, but you don’t have to do it again if you don’t want to.’ She said, ‘But if you really don’t want to do it, they’re going to have to find another girl to do the movie, which is fine. But you just need to let me know.’”
Breslin said she had no interest in letting another girl do the role, adding she also had early memories of spending time with studio teachers and playing games but doesn’t have concrete memories of production until “Little Miss Sunshine,” when she was able to “retain more information.”
Watch more from video of the “Vulnerable” podcast interview with Breslin at the top of this post.
