What’s the next project you’re trying to get done?

I don’t understand this, because legally I’ve done everything to take care of it and protect myself, so why would they tell me I’m not allowed to speak about it?  Because they don’t want people to maybe write about it before hand?

Even though the script’s copyrighted, the idea could get poached, and they could make something similar to it.

Right, but I don’t know who would really try to do that.

Is it something also autobiographical?

No.  It has nothing to do with youth culture.  It actually takes place in New Zealand in the 60’s and the 80’s.  That’s the other reason why it’s been so difficult; after Thirteen, it was very easy to be handed a million dollars to do Fourteen or Fifteen.  (Laughs)  But people aren’t so quick to hop on the bandwagon if it’s not a done deal.  People don’t want to take risks.  And I’m young.  And I’m a female.  That’s the bottom line in this business.  We can’t pretend like those aren’t huge factors, because they are.  And I’m trying my best as a person to not use my sexuality as a means to gain power.  So, I try to go into all of these situations being as respectful as possible and be taken seriously.  Then I do something like Mini’s, and I’m sitting in a red bikini on the poster.  And it’s difficult. 

In a movie about your sexuality as power.

Right.  But Nikki is not Mini.  And it’s funny how when Charlize Theron plays a serial killer, it’s very obvious that it’s not her, but there’s no way I could be anyone except the girl in that movie.

You talk about the kids who watch The O.C. also loved Thirteen.  Do you think they liked it for the right reasons or the wrong reasons? 

Like taking the trends from it?  Like it’s cool to get your tongue pierced now because Evan and I have our tongues pierced?

They aren’t getting the nuances or the cautionary tale aspect of it.  They’re getting the vicarious thrill of the [girl’s behavior].

I don’t know what to say about that.  You know, you can take Kids.  It scared the shit out of a lot of people, and then it also made a lot of kids go like, “I want to be just like that”.  There’s nothing you can do to avoid it.  There’s always going to be the yin and the yang; there’s going to be the good and the bad to everything that I do – that anyone does.  But I can hope that the majority of kids or parents or adults got something out of it aside from what’s cool.  And, you know what, if girls saw that movie and they thought it would be cool to turn Evie Zamora into their role model, then, god help them, they probably would’ve done it if they’d seen something else.   I’m not going to take responsibility for everyone that does that, because I do a lot of positive things, too.  I mentor a group of girls who did love Thirteen, and now are doing really well in school.  And I feel like I’m doing something very positive through that.

Do you have any favorite film femme fatales that you looked at for Mini?

No.  (Laughs)  I can make some up. 

Were there any aspects of Mini that you enjoyed playing?

I can’t say it wasn’t fun to make the movie.  I mean, I had a blast.  It was fun to be able to walk around and have a trucker’s mouth and be absolutely crass.  I had this discussion with the director when he first handed me the project.  I’m like, “She sounds like a man when she speaks.  Are you aware of that?  Are you aware that you wrote this, and you sound like this is you speaking through a woman?”  And he said, “Yeah.  That was the point.  I wrote Mini as asexual at the beginning.  I didn’t know if she was going to be a guy or a girl, and this was going to be her dialogue either way.”  I thought that was kind of interesting, because I thought about it and there’s nothing feminine that she says in the movie.  Aside from what I’m wearing and what I look like when I’m walking around, if you actually took everything away, there’s nothing that I say that separates the two sexes.  And I thought that was kind of interesting.  It was fun to be able to embody that.  And then there’s always the excuse of like, “Who says once the cameras turn off that I can’t still walk around and act like that for the day.”  That was pretty good.  And my boyfriend was there all day.  Every day.  He wasn’t working.  That’s the beauty of dating an actor.  (Laughs) 

What’s the name of your girl’s group?

I don’t have a name.  Actually, they’re getting older now.  It started two years ago, so I keep wanting to say that they’re like twelve or thirteen, but they’re actually now like fifteen and sixteen.  It’s a little scary.  Oh, my god, they’re not that much younger than me.  At the time, it seemed like such a huge jump when I first started speaking with these girls.  It all started when I got a fan letter.  It was one of the first ones I got.  She was just going through a really hard time – and this was before, like, the 5,000 letters started coming.  So, I was reading all of them, and responding to all of them, and I really loved it.  And then I realized that half of them were dirty old men, so that stopped.  But I wrote her back, and I gave her my email address, and I said, “We should email!”  So, we started emailing, and I eventually gave her my phone number, and she would talk to me, and she would say, “Do you think you could help me with this or that?”  And her grades started getting better, and her mom started calling me.  It really felt great. 

And six months later it happened again; I picked up another girl who I started talking to.  Then I started meeting girls who were literally girls on the street that would come up to me and talk to me, and you can tell the difference between someone who’s coming up to me in their Jimmy Choo’s with a purse saying that they really loved me and another girl who just wants to talk to me for five minutes and tell me what they’re going through and seeing if we can relate on something.  So, now, there’s a bunch of us.  We talk online every day.  I get report cards in the mail, and I have parental conversations with mothers and fathers.  These girls are doing really well, and it has nothing to do with me or who I am.  I had that person in my life, too; I had a friend named Debbie and Catherine Hardwicke.  It’s just to have that attention, which is also very similar to Mini as well, not that I’m trying to put the two together.  Just to have someone who says, “Hey, I care.  Why don’t we write this paper together?”  It really makes a difference when you know that someone believes in you more than you believe in yourself.

Do you think that Mini’s a good person at all?

I don’t think she’s a bad person.  I mean, I’m there; I’m right behind her, especially since I’ve been doing interviews and hearing the words “evil” and “sociopath”.  I approached this with a view of Mini as hurting.  Have you guys read this theory that people who are serial killers and their parents… there’s something about touching someone.  Just to feel the connection.  Part of their brain is missing something; they’re lacking some essential… I don’t know, some weird vitamin that should’ve come through touching the skin.  But I really feel that [Mini] is missing that, because her mother paid no attention to her, did not love her at all, and wasn’t there.  She doesn’t understand the weight of consequences; there are no boundaries.  Children in general crave boundaries.  They want to be told, “No, you cannot do that.”  Honestly, all she wanted was what she got from Martin, which was genuine love.  He loved her more than she loved him, so that was empowering for her. 

Also, I’ve been asked this a number of times, and it was really surprising.  People think that Mini came to the situation with the intention of murdering her mother and framing Martin, and that wasn’t the case.  Mini’s a survivor.  Every obstacle that comes in her way, she’s going to find a way to get around it.  And she was planning on being with Martin and being happy.  But something happened that got in the way, so she has to step over it.  She has to get to the top, you know.

People talk about kids today growing up too fast and losing their innocence, but do you think there is a way to get the sort of maturity and intelligence you’re showing with us today without having that kind of experience early on?

(Long pause) 

Is that necessarily a bad thing is what I’m asking.

Wait.  Is that a bad thing or is there a way to get there without [that experience]?  Which one?

I guess I’m asking if it’s a bad thing, because you’re obviously in a very good place and very smart.

I was very lucky.  Some of the girls that I talk to all the time say, “We want to move out.  We’re fifteen, we’re sixteen!  Can we move out?”  And I’m like, “No.  You don’t understand.  You can’t do that.”  I don’t know how I could do that, but it’s not like I’ve been through that and said, “Oh, I can do it, you can do it.”  I think I was very fortunate, and if it weren’t for Thirteen and the opportunities it gave me – and, actually, if it weren’t for me being basically thrown out on my butt and having to pick myself up and be responsible.  If I hadn’t moved out, I don’t know where I would be, because it forced me to stay at home and figure out what I was doing and learn how to pay bills and learn how to be an adult.  That was what I needed.  I think with everyone it’s different.  I don’t think it’s something that can be acquired.  It was a struggle.

I wonder if people who stay at home and have a happy childhood have the same ethic you have.

I don’t know.  I think sometimes when you have a perfect situation, you’re almost sheltered.  You’re almost sheltered from the experience that you may need to be a survivor.  But I could be wrong.  Everyone’s different.  I know plenty of young people that are wise beyond their years.  When I was fourteen, I was in a two year relationship living with someone already.  And, believe it or not, I was actually engaged when I was fourteen because my family lives in Hawaii, and that’s Hawaiian culture.  We broke up after two years, and then I immediately started dating my current boyfriend of two-and-a-half years now.  That’s what I’ve had:  not only myself as an individual growing up too fast, but also sort of mirroring what I always wanted as a sort of picture perfect sort of family life.  You asked me about going out and stuff; I don’t go out because this is the life that I want.  I like staying at home.  I like cooking.  I like that feeling, because that’s what I wanted.  I don’t know if that’s necessarily the healthiest thing, and I may talk to you guys in ten years and say, “Why did I do that?”  But for now, it works.  For me.

Mini's First Time opens in New York and Los Angeles Friday, July 14th.