Music has always been something I wanted to do. I think just the idea of performing and entertaining and being in the studio is really what I wanted to know how that felt. I started to get into it around the same time I got into acting, but it turned into a side project because my movies were taking up most of my time.

The minute I know it's real to the minute we start shooting, I will work on the script, breaking it down and working on the character, doing as much research as I possibly can to the point where I feel like I eat, sleep and breathe it without looking at a page. Then I go in and try to forget all of it and just be there.

My very first audition was on the lot of Paramount, and I was put on tape and it was very nerve-racking. I think it was about 15 pages.

To be recognized for your hard work is a true honor. An Academy Award nomination is one thing that, five years later, I can't form a sentence about. It has not made me feel like I can work any less hard. It makes me feel like I have to work 100 times as hard, to even be as remotely good, to work through an experience that could take me through that again.

I do have an incredible relationship with my parents, and my mom, who I go to for absolutely everything, thank the lord. If I didn't, I don't know what I would do. But I guess, I think we all have those moments where we feel like we're so alone and have no one to go to.

The shooting of the guns, that was kind of funny, because rolling a cigarette and shooting a gun aren't like normal things for a 13-year old girl!

My first modeling job was Gap, and my first time in front of the camera was for a Soda Pop Girls commercial - it's one of those Bratz dolls, Barbie dollsone of those.