All American Girl

When she’s not plowing through dry-aged sirloin, the East Sider likes diving into a cone of thick Belgian fries at Pommes Frites and sucking down double chocolate-chip Frappuccinos at Starbucks. At the top of her list of non-food-related activities is seeing movies at the Kips Bay cineplex. “Oh, also, there’s the Build-A-Bear Workshop,” she says. “It’s the biggest one in the world.” Her bear’s name is Butter.

But when Breslin mentions another favorite destination—the American Girl store on Fifth Avenue—we’re skeptical. The endorsement seems a little too convenient given her current project. C’mon, we ask, how into American Girl are you really?

“I have, like, every single doll,” she replies.

Fair enough. And which is her favorite?

“Here’s the thing,” she says in her typically sincere, confiding way. “They all have really different stories, and they all have really different families, so I don’t know. But I really love Kit.”

The film’s story line shows the impact of the Great Depression on several families—not your average summer popcorn fare (though unfortunately resonant in this economic slump). In one difficult scene, Kit’s friends are forced to leave their house. “They don’t have enough money to pay the electric bill because it’s two dollars,” Breslin explains. “It’s scary to think that they didn’t even have two dollars.”

To prepare for the role, Breslin interviewed someone who grew up during the Depression: her grandmother. “She said that she and her friends used to roller-skate down a grassy hill,” Breslin says, obviously finding the idea fascinatingly exotic. “They would climb up the hill and skate down, and it was, like, really high!”

“And they didn’t have dessert back then, Grandma said,” prompts Mom, ever the grounding influence.

Breslin’s costars include Stanley Tucci, Joan Cusack and Julia Ormond, along with four young girls chosen in a nationwide talent search to play Kit’s friends. While those actors returned home after filming wrapped last fall, Breslin was stopping in NYC only briefly before moving on to Australia to shoot her next movie. “I’m looking forward to seeing kangaroos and koalas, but I’m going to miss my pets,” she says, referring to her turtle, cat and two dogs. “This has been hard enough, being away one month. Now we’re going to be gone for four months! I feel so bad, ’cause they give you this look whenever you walk out, like, ‘Can I please come in your bag?’ ”

Sounds like no matter how her career develops over the next few years—at 12, her looks have already matured so much that she is rarely recognized—New York will always be her home. After all, she’s still got plenty to do here. Next up on her list?

“I want to see Wicked really badly.”

Kit Kittredge: An American Girl Mystery (G) opens Wed, July 2.