Abigail Breslin and Jodie Foster in Nim's Island Courtesy of Fox Walden

Like Lindsay Lohan, who played your role in the remake of Freaky Friday. In seeing what happens to young stars nowadays, aren't you glad you grew up in the '70s?
It was great! We didn't have those enormous telephoto lenses that paparazzi are using now. We could do a lot of foolish things that people didn't know about. [Back then] even a popular 16 year-old actor did not get paid millions of dollars. The worth of children and adolescent actors has changed dramatically. We put them on covers, we spy on them... We squeeze the sponge as hard as we can, and when we're done we throw it away. It doesn't matter because we'll find another one soon enough. I had the luck of being protected by my mother, who wanted to make sure that I was taken seriously and who did all she could to help me achieve a long career.

What would you have done if you hadn't been an actress?
I think I would have been a writer or a teacher. I love to talk. When I was little, I wanted to be a professional talker, to which my mother responded: "Perfect, you only have to become the President of the United States!"

You often play roles that were meant for men. Whose roles would you like to swipe?
Daniel Day-Lewis and Sean Penn, who are by far my favorite actors. The problem is that they're too good. I would never measure up to them!