Little Miss Breslin doesn't mind doing heavy lifting in difficult roles

But of course, that wouldn't be Abigail Breslin, one of only a handful of junior thespians to be nominated for an Academy Award before she turned 11. Breslin achieved that distinction in the 2005 comedy-drama Little Miss Sunshine.

"I'm not a big crier at movies when I'm watching them," she says. "But I did cry at Marley and Me, really hard and I was sad the whole night."

Notice that the New York City-born Breslin specified "when I'm watching them."

When she's making movies, the tears might flow more freely, especially in films such as the 2007 comedy-drama No Reservations, in which she played an orphan sent to live with her anti-social aunt (Catherine Zeta Jones).

The tearjerker bar is set even higher in the upcoming drama My Sister's Keeper, in which Breslin plays Anna, an 11-year-old girl genetically engineered to provide life-saving stem cells and bone marrow to her cancer-afflicted sister Kate (Sofia Vassilieva). After a lifetime of providing life-saving materials, Anna rebels and hires a lawyer (Alec Baldwin) to sue her parents (Cameron Diaz and Jason Patric) for "medical emancipation."

Breslin acknowledges that premise might be a tough sell for audiences.

"Of course, it's really hard to watch a family going through that," she says. "But I think that also it's about a family that, even though they're disconnected from each other, they love each other. That's also really important."

As for filming the oft-difficult material, Breslin says she doesn't find it too onerous to keep her distance from the drama on the set.

"There were definitely times and scenes where we definitely had to stay in it," she says. "But you also have to separate from it and be you and not the character... and I think that makes it a little bit easier."

Breslin seems determined not to be a complete drama queen. She appears to be conscientiously mixing it up with diverse projects, including the upcoming horror-comedy Zombieland, in which she'll be taking on legions of the undead alongside Woody Harrelson and Jesse Eisenberg.

"I had lots of fun," she says. "Instead of having to try not to cry all the time, I was trying not to laugh."

Breslin also lends her voice to three upcoming animated movies including the upcoming animated comedy Rango opposite Johnny Depp and Isla Fisher.

If she seems to be ticking off different film genres one-by-one, her interest in cinematic variety springs from a natural desire to stretch her acting muscles.

"I definitely like to play characters that are different from anything that I've played before," she says. I like to do different movies."

If you worry Breslin may be growing up too quickly, you only have to ask her about her academic plans and she excitedly projects her future sharing an apartment with a friend.

"She's going to go to Columbia and I'm going to go to NYU, and we've already picked out the place and we're going to have a silver Christmas tree up all year long so that we can have presents underneath it all the time, and it's going to be a pink and purple colour scheme," she says, breathlessly.

And what's her major going to be?

"Um... "

My Sister's Keeper opens in theatres next Friday.

Republished from the Winnipeg Free Press print edition June 20, 2009 C6