Abigail Breslin is an American actress. Following a string of film parts as a young child, she rose to prominence at age 10 when she played Olive Hoover in Little Miss Sunshine (2006), for which she received a nomination for the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress. Breslin went on to establish herself as a mainstream actress with roles in films such as No Reservations (2007), Nim's Island, Definitely, Maybe, My Sister's Keeper, Zombieland, Rango (2011), The Call, August: Osage County, Maggie (2015), and Stillwater (2021). Her other projects include the Fox series Scream Queens (2015–2016), where she portrayed Libby Putney, her first regular role on television.
Breslin in 2015
Breslin in January 2007
Breslin at the 2010 Toronto International Film Festival
Breslin at the premiere of August: Osage County in 2013
Little Miss Sunshine is a 2006 American tragicomedy road film directed by Jonathan Dayton and Valerie Faris from a screenplay written by Michael Arndt. The film stars an ensemble cast consisting of Greg Kinnear, Steve Carell, Toni Collette, Paul Dano, Abigail Breslin, and Alan Arkin, all of whom play members of a dysfunctional family taking the youngest (Breslin) to compete in a child beauty pageant. It was produced by Big Beach Films on a budget of US$8 million. Filming began on June 6, 2005, and took place over 30 days in Arizona and Southern California.
Theatrical release poster
A Volkswagen T2 Microbus, similar to the one in the film
Five modified vans were used during filming to capture various angles of the characters, including this one through the windshield.
To make Abigail Breslin's character (centre) appear larger than the other girls, she wore a padded suit. Much of the equipment and costumes exhibited during the pageant were provided by actual contestants' parents.