from Metro, February 9, 2007
by Andrew Williams

You had to work with a lot of pigs on Charlotte’s Web. Did you bond with them?
I did. There were 50 or 60 pigs and I worked with most of them. They were all good at different things. One was good at staying still when you held it, another was good at sleeping, so we used him for the scenes where I had him in bed with me.

Charlotte’s Web was filmed in Australia. What did you do in your spare time?
One of the fun things was going to Phillip Island, near Melbourne, where you see these little penguins coming out of the water. There are all these little burrows in the sand and they go back to the same one each night. There are thousands of them. I loved seeing that.

Does your mother always travel with you?
Yes, and my sister and dad come and visit. My sister Elle was actually in Australia for the whole of that shoot.

Isn’t she also an actress?
Yes. She’s eight. She’s in Babel with Brad Pitt. And she also just did a film called Reservation Road with Joaquin Phoenix and Jennifer Connelly. But there’s no competition. I’m just really proud of her.

Is it true that you were one of the first to hear of Tom Cruise and Katie Holmes’s engagement?
Besides family that were staying with them in Paris, I think I was. He proposed to her in the middle of the night and the next morning we were going to a press conference for War Of The Worlds when he whispered in my ear that they were engaged.

Didn’t that throw you off a bit?
I wasn’t really thrown off because I think a lot of people had maybe expected it. And they were so happy together, so it wasn’t too surprising.

Were you invited to the wedding?
I wasn’t but I sent a present. I’ve knitted Tom a scarf before.

Are you a good knitter?
I’m good but I’m so bad about actually knitting them. If I’m on a movie, I will knit for everyone on set but then I barely do it at home, so I have to get better at knitting things for my family. The only one in my family who has a scarf is my grandmother, so I have to make sure I make one for my mum, dad and sister.

Don’t they give you a hard time about the fact that Tom has one and they don’t?
Yes. My sister gets really mad at me. I started knitting her one and made the mistake of telling her, so now she just hangs over me all the time saying: ‘You’re not knitting my scarf!’ So when I’m just sitting there being lazy, she’ll bring it over and say: ‘Start!’

So you won’t be having your own scarf line any time soon?
Well, I could if I got in the zone. I knitted one in a day before.

Are your parents strict about what you can watch on TV?
Really there’s nothing I want to watch that I can’t watch. Desperate Housewives is one of my favourites. I’ve watched that from the beginning. I love Teri Hatcher. She’s my favourite. I recently did an animated movie with her.

You make a lot of films for grown-ups. Are you too young to see the finished product?
I think in today’s world, kids see all kinds of films. There are some films I don’t see but I’ve seen all mine.

Is it true that there is a graphic rape scene in your next film Hounddog?
No, there is no graphic scene. There is a scene but it’s not graphic. All the stories about that were just stupid stuff. My character is raped in the film but there’s no nudity or anything like that. You just see my face. It’s a wonderful film about my character overcoming adversity. And the lesson of that film is that something bad can happen to you but you can still come out again as a whole person.

Do you have really good friends who knew you before you were famous?
I have one I’ve known since I was two but she lives in North Carolina, so I don’t really get to see her much. And then my other best friend I’ve known for four or five years.

You are home-schooled. Do you feel you’ve missed out at all?
I only went to school from the age of two to four, so I really don’t know what I’m missing. I go to my teacher’s house and I really enjoy it.

Will you ever go to school?
Maybe I’ll go to high school. Definitely college. I’ll still be acting but I think I’d like to study history.

You become a teenager in a fortnight. Are you going to turn into a tearaway?
Well, I hope I don’t hate myself. I don’t think I will. Everyone has to grow up at some point. I don’t wish to be older, I just want to enjoy the age that I am. But, of course, I’m looking forward to getting older. I might as well – I can’t stop it.

Are you interested in fashion?
I’ve always loved fashion. I wear a lot of Juicy Couture, True Religion and Seven jeans. It’s natural for girls to want designer labels but that’s not the most important thing, of course.

Who would you really like to work with?
Jodie Foster. I’ve wanted to work with her since I was really, really young.