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Move over Dakota Fanning. Abigail Breslin is gaining on you and she hasn't even hit her stride.


Breslin hinted at what she's capable of with her Oscar-nominated performance a few years ago in Little Miss Sunshine, but at 13 she's only just begun.


Another professional step in the right direction is her pivotal co-starring performance in the weepy My Sister's Keeper which opens in theatres June 26.


In Nick Cassavete's film version of Jodi Picoult's 2004 novel, Breslin portrays a child who sues her parents for medical emancipation when her mother (Cameron Diaz) demands that she give up a kidney to save her leukemia-stricken older sister (Sofia Vassilieva).


"My character's put in a difficult position, choosing between herself and her sister and her family and that was really hard to feel," said Breslin at a downtown hotel Wednesday. "It's even harder to show because she doesn't know who she is in the family."


What the young actress could count on were some solid adult actors. She has high praise for Diaz as the mom, Alec Baldwin who plays the child's lawyer and Joan Cusack who shows up in a cameo as the judge who rules on the requested emancipation.


Especially evident to Breslin was the connection she had with Vassilieva, the actress who plays her near-death sister. Maybe, it's because Vassilieva, now 16, started out as a child actress - first in commercials, then in two Eloise TV movies with Julie Andrews - and is currently featured in the show Medium with Patricia Arquette.


"We also spent time together and went shopping for some of the things you see in our characters' room," reported Breslin.


It's that simple to the young actress. Born in New York City, she's the daughter of Kim Breslin, who manages her career and continues to marvel at Abigail's innate sensibility to find the correct emotional moments on a movie set.


"Even as toddler she would be able to do whatever was asked of her," her mother said during a recent interview.


The natural thespian began her career at the age of three doing TV commercials, showing off her ability to find the sad or happy moment upon request.


Her movie debut arrived at age seven in M. Night Shyamalan's Signs, and she continued to impress, winning parts in such high-profile films as The Princess Diaries 2: Royal Engagement and Raising Helen with her brother Spencer Breslin and Kate Hudson.


She managed some noteworthy TV guest spots, too, on Ghost Whisperer, Law and Order: Special Victims Unit, What I Like About You and especially Grey's Anatomy.


Her Oscar-nominated and incredibly detailed embodiment of Little Miss Sunshine beauty pageant hopeful Olive Hoover sealed her deal, however, and established her as the girl most wanted by 2007. Although she downplays the assorted opportunities that arrived in the post-Oscar nod flurry.


"I don't know," Breslin said. "I just do the movies and characters and stories I like. My mother still reads the scripts first, then I read them and we talk about them, and if I get asked, we do them."


Still, in quick succession, she scored some high-profile parts after Little Miss Sunshine. She was featured in Jodie Foster's special effects fantasy Nim's Island with Gerard Butler. She co-starred with Catherine Zeta-Jones and Aaron Eckhart in No Reservations, and she took on the title character Kit Kittredge: An American Girl, a movie which brought to life a popular American doll line.


In Definitely, Maybe, Breslin confessed that she felt like she was playing a variation of herself for the first time. In the romantic comedy she portrays the divorced daughter of a Manhattan political consultant (Reynolds). "She sort of dressed like me and looked a lot like me," Breslin noted, "so that was fun."


She gets just as excited pretending to be other people's voices. She'll be showcased as one of the main characters in the cartoon Quantum Quest: A Cassini Space Odyssey also featuring Chris Pine, Amanda Peet and Samuel L. Jackson.


She won't confirm other voice parts, but she might be in two more animated motion pictures, including Gore Verbinski's animated Rango with Johnny Depp and Isla Fisher, and then maybe The Wild Bunch with Willem Dafoe and Chris Klein. She also might be teaming up with AnnaSophia Robb in Garry Marshall's 1960s road comedy Dear Eleanor, which is set to start shooting later in the year.


Breslin will confirm that next for her is the horror-comedy Zombieland, opening Oct. 9, and featuring Breslin, Woody Harrelson, Jesse Eisenberg, Emma Stone and Mila Kunis.


"Yes, it should be a little different from the other movies I've done," she said. "You get scared and laugh and cry, so it has a lot of different things."


Does she play a zombie or a teen running from them?


"I cannot say," teased the actress smiling. "I guess you will just have to find out."


My Sister's Keeper opens June 26.

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