Jodie Foster
On swear jars, seal kisses and SpongeBob popsicles.
by Justin Clark
March 19, 2008
What was it like working with Abigail Breslin?
Oh, Abigail's great. Because I was a child actor from the time I was three, I do see bits and pieces of myself as a kid in her. She's got a great family that comes with her, she's very well adjusted and she likes to just get on with it. She likes to just do her job and not dwell on the acting stuff. But she has something that I didn't have as a young person. She has this very strong access to her emotions and that's so easy for her. She's really born to be an actress and I really didn't have that at her age. So it's fun for me to look at a kid and go, "Wow, that kid's born to be an actor."
Did you talk to her about having a career like yours?
Not really. She wasn't looking for advice from me. Our conversations were more about what flavor popsicles do you like?
And what was it?
Well, we were talking about the ice cream trucks in New York. What things the ice cream trucks have and how the SpongeBob ones are a rip-off. "It's all yellow, but there's nothing else on it." So we didn't really talk about careers and stuff like that. And she doesn't need my advice. She's got a great career and she's happy and healthy and all of that.
I'll tell you what was amazing, was watching Abigail change from the beginning of the film to the end. She's a Manhattan kid — raised in Manhattan — and she didn't do a lot of camping and stuff like that in her life. She's a city kid. So she never swam in the ocean before. She had put her toe in the ocean, or maybe her hand in the ocean, but she never fully swam in the ocean before. Here she had to jump on the back of a trained sea lion and go underneath the water and above the water. That was really adventurous stuff.
"I'll tell you what was amazing, was watching Abigail [Breslin] change from the beginning of the film to the end."
Climbing rock faces and going on a zip line. She was actually a little bit afraid of heights and she had to do that zip line thing. At the beginning, when we started rehearsals, she was a little scared of things and by the end, she was diving in the waves and she had a little rat's nest in her hair. She changed, I think, and it really brought her confidence.
That's what kids are looking for from these adventure stories. They're looking to be able to say, "I could do that myself." "I can fix a satellite dish with a tool belt" and "I can make my own food, and if my dad was away for two days I'd figure it out." And it's important for kids to have that kind of confidence in their own self-reliance.
How funny do you consider yourself as a person?
I don't know. I mean, I'm witty. My humor is kind of language-based. But my natural humor is sort of dry and nasty and R-rated, a little.
Abigail said she kept a swear jar on set for Gerard.
Well, we have one at our house — the Bad Words Jar. It's ridiculous. I don't know what's happened to me in the last six months, but I'm going to go broke soon.
©2008 Justin Clark and Nerve Media
About the Author
|
|
Related Articles
|
|
A recent graduate of the Columbia Graduate School of Journalism, Justin Clark has written for L.A. Weekly, Psychology Today, Black Book, Architecture, Fuse, and The Fader, among other publications. He is currently researching a history of the American child prodigy, and writing a mystery novel set in Los Angeles. |
|
|
-
by Sarah Hepola
On why his son won't eat meat or be a child actor.
-
by Aaron Burgess
The rock icon and dad on his newest baby: Kidzapalooza.
-
by Justin Clark
"I don't have a mental manual of how I'm raising my kids."
|
