United State - Miranda Cosgrove is not just your regular starlet.
Looking pretty and polished for her Despicable Me 2 roundtable interview, the University of Southern California (USC) film student is back to voice the eldest of Gru's adopted daughters, Margo.
In this sequel, now showing in cinemas, Margo enters the phase fathers fear most - dating! Super-baddie turned domesticated single parent Gru (Steve Carell) may be recruited by the Anti-Villains League to go undercover to help nab a mysterious villain, but his daddy duties are never far from his mind.
When a smooth-talking boy starts hitting on Margo, Gru's protectiveness kicks into overdrive. Cosgrove is arguably one of the most level-headed child stars in Hollywood.
Forget your Miley Cyruses and Amanda Byneses.
This brunette, who made her big screen debut at 10 in 2003's The School Of Rock and later had her own television series iCarly, is scandal free and has her head buried in her books.
The 20-year-old chatted with FiRST at the Four Seasons Hotel in Beverly Hills recently where she gave the dish on making Despicable Me 2, her own journey from a teen star to a college student at USC, and everything in between.
What was it like coming back for the sequel?
It was really fun coming back to the character again and with a whole new storyline.
Margo's not as snotty or has as many mean one-liners as in the first movie because she didn't like Gru that much (then). I think she loves him now and they are more of a family.
You play a teenage girl. Did you have to make your voice sound younger?
I did try to make the voice sound a bit younger, but I think it already sounds pretty young (laughs). I actually auditioned for the first movie and was told to do my regular voice then try to make it sound younger. In the end I pretty much did the voice the way I sound.
I hope someday I can do a different voice like Steve. I love the voice he does. It sounds nothing like him.
It must have been pretty fun to play Gru. I think it would be pretty cool to break it (the accent) out at a party.
Margo falls in love for the first time in this movie. Did you take upon your first love for the role?
Yeah, my first love was Curtis Phillips and I loved him in fifth grade. I thought he was the most amazing person who ever lived. And he then moved to Florida and I searched him on Facebook but couldn't find him.
I definitely did recall the first person I liked for those scenes.
You're pretty well known. How do you deal with being recognised?
The most challenging thing is that I go to Disneyland like twice a week since my parents live pretty close, and there are a lot of kids there that always come up to me for autographs and pictures.
I mean, I can go to most places like restaurants and stuff without getting recognised.
What are you working on at the moment?
I just finished my first year of college - it's been interesting and fun. I really enjoy comedy so I'm looking forward to taking a comedy screen-writing class next semester. Screen-writing is something I'd definitely like to do in the future.
Are you planning on finishing school instead of dropping out like other actors have done once they land that big role?
I plan on continuing school no matter what. The great thing about USC is that you can take a semester off. They're pretty flexible about that. This first year I've focused entirely on school, but at some point, I'd like to take a semester off to do some acting.
Did you always want to become an actress?
I don't know because an agent came up to my parents when I was three. Now I really love it and am happy that it happened the way it did. But I'm not sure if it's something I wanted to do when I was little.
My first acting memory was when I was seven or eight. I remember being that age and really liking it.
I was on another show on Nickelodeon at the time and knew who the two guys were on the show because I used to watch it when I was little, so in my eyes I was working with two of the biggest stars in the world.