O’Donnell’s First Time As A Dad

Actor Plays Abigail Breslin’s Father In “Kit Kittredge: An American Girl”

(CBS)  In actor Chris O'Donnell’s latest movie, American families are cutting corners to make ends meet, many barely scraping by, and every parent’s biggest fear is losing the family home to foreclosure.


No, it’s not set in the present when rising fuel costs are sending the price of all purchases higher and the mortgage crisis has made foreclosure commonplace. “Kit Kittredge: An American Girl” takes place in the '30s, during the great depression.

“It's a little shocking how timely it is now,” the actor said Friday on an interview on The Early Show, “coming out with the recession that we're in and the foreclosure rates rising the way they are.”

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Photos: The Movie Premiere

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Best known for playing Robin in the “Batman” movies, O’Donnell also was one of Ellen Pompeo’s love interests in “Grey’s Anatomy” and won acclaim as a CIA agent in the TNT miniseries “The Company.” But this is the first time he is playing a father in a movie.

“It's bizarre,” the soon-to-be 38-year-old said. “ I can't believe I'm playing a dad. I was always the kid or the son and I look in the mirror, I don't look like a dad. [But] I've got the kids to prove it.“

Married for 11 years to his Boston College sweetheart, O’Donnell has five children, aged 8 to six months.

“I think anyone who has kids, you know how strong that bond is,” O’Donnell said. “ You love your family, love your parents, when you have children, it's a different level.

“ And I really related to my character because in the film, he loses his car dealership. He has to leave Cincinnati and go to Chicago to find work. I do that all the time. I have to say good-bye to my family and go on location all the time.

“That's the hardest thing I have to do in my business. Thank God for ichat - and I can see the kids on the computer. Not an easy thing to do.”


The movie, based on one of the books in the American Girl series sold with the popular dolls, chronicles the adventures of a pre-teenage aspiring reporter who befriends hobos, solves a crime and saves the family home from foreclosure. Oscar nominee Abigail Breslin plays Kit. The movie, which opens July 2, also stars Julia Ormond, Jane Krakowski, Joan Cusack, Stanley Tucci and young Willow Smith, daughter of actors Will Smith and Jada Pinkett Smith. Julia Roberts is executive producer.

“It's just a great family tale about this family coming together and working together,” says O’Donnell, the youngest of seven children, who got his own start in a McDonald’s commercial at age 16. “That's the emotional core of the film and then there's the comedic elements. It works nicely.”