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Beautiful Youth: An Interview With the Young Stars of American Beauty

MS: Well, for me, I think, you know--obviously I had some slight difficulty in taking my top off on camera (laughs and blushes). But other than that, I found it so easy to identify with Angela that it was never hard to get inside her. I was really, really eager to play her because I've always had so many different sides to me. It made me feel even stronger as an actor.

THC: So.... What is it like to get to work with big stars like Kevin Spacey and Annette Bening?

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WB: Ooo, the big question!

TB: You know, I think they learned a lot working with me, really. I could see them watching me closely, and... (breaks up laughing). No, I'm kidding. These are just gods of the cinema. But at this point; when you're nine and working with Harrison Ford, I don't think you can absorb as much as you do when you're 17 working with Kevin Spacey. Oh, make sure you say I'm 17. Not 18. Everyone keeps saying I'm 18; it's a lie. I'm a minor.

WB: Kevin knows how to keep a set light. He would always be doing impressions.

MS: It would be Walter Matthau one day, and Christopher Walken the next....

THC: Most movies that feature teenagers as a focal point don't often look so realistically at what teenage life is like, and the way they talk to each other. Were you worried that you might alienate people with some of the really controversial things your characters do?

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