Abigail Breslin’s parents ensured she survived the early days of fame – by making her childhood as "normal" as possible.
The ‘My Sister’s Keeper’ star credits her mother and father for keeping her humble as she navigated Hollywood as a young girl.
She said: "She taught me from a very, very, very young age to stand up for myself and to not feel like my opinion didn’t hold value. She was like, ‘Always say what you’re thinking.’ I don’t know that I had an epiphany of wanting to be an actor … but since I can remember, it’s what I wanted to do. My mum told me that if I wanted to do it, I could. If I didn’t want to, I could stop at any time. My parents were great about making sure that I had a normal upbringing – as normal as anybody’s childhood can be."
And the 22-year-old actress says her mother "really helped" her when she worked a particular movie that required her to do a lot of stunts.
She added to InStyle magazine: "I was doing a movie when I was 11, and I had to do a lot of stunts, like rock climbing and everything. And I was like, ‘Oh my God, there’s no way that I can do it’. And my mum was always like, ‘What do you mean? That’s not even a thing’. It really helped me during that time.
"There were a lot of times on set where I felt like I couldn’t give my opinion or voice what I thought and express myself because I felt like I was just the young girl on set and that it wouldn’t really matter what I thought. Not necessarily because of the people that I was working with, but because of what I gleaned from society."
Abigail Breslin thanks parents for ‘normal’ upbringing
