Portia Doubleday - Youth in Revolt's teen siren

Portia Doubleday is breaking onto the film scene as the teenage girl Michael Cera falls head-over-heels in love in the new movie Youth in Revolt. While she may just be breaking into the business, it seemed inherent that she would eventually follow in the footsteps of both her parents and sister. But as the actress told EDGE, it wasn't something she was pressured to do - in fact her parents tried to steer her away from acting.

"They said don't act. I did (avoid it) for a long time. My dad is Mr. Academia," explains Doubleday with a laugh. "He was just hardcore into studying so that was pretty much all I did. I didn't go to a performing arts high school and my sister had. I just got to a point where I felt I had a void in my life. So I started to get into acting more and more, kind of slowly."

Despite initially taking the academic route, Doubleday had always wanted to be an actress. She did get experience from going to CalArts for a summer program and the Academy for Dramatic Arts. Growing up she had dabbled in acting professionally also appearing in commercials and a featured role in 1997's Legend of the Mummy.

"A little weirdo in high school"

In the film based on the cult classic C.D. Payne novel by the same name, Cera stars as Nick Twisp who becomes a teenage rebel in order to win the affection of Sheeni Saunders, played by Doubleday. Sheeni isn't your typical teenage girl - a Francophile who worships Jean-Paul Belmondo in Breathless and dreams of escaping her humdrum life with her religious fanatic parents and stoner brother by going to an exclusive French private school. Things change when she meets Twisp, whom she encourages to embrace his bad boy side. To do so he creates an alternate personality - the Belmondo-inspired Francois Dillinger -- to win her over.

Prior to getting the role, Doubleday hadn't read the book series. Once cast she found them to be a big help when it came to finding her character.

"The book was amazing. It was super-helpful cause there was extensive description. It was nice, not only having a script, but having kind of an entire biography of what you are doing," the actress said about being able to find her character.

Tackling a role like Sheeni isn't something that most people get the opportunity to do, especially for their first film. Doubleday, who referred to herself as "a little weirdo in high school," wasn't like Sheeni at the age of 16. Sheeni is a Francophile balancing between being purring teen sex kitten and cold-hearted puppet master who gets Nick to take some incredible risks by pulling his heart strings. The 21-year old actress felt a bit overwhelmed, but credits director Miguel Arteta with helping to have a vision of what he wanted for the film.

"Especially because [with] Sheeni, there are so many characteristics, she is so complex. It was difficult being somewhat aloof and detached but likeable-ish and manipulative and sweet," described the actress. "Miguel was such a great driving force and the writing is there in the script, so it's not as scary."

Something that was scary for the actress was seeing the supporting cast. Along with Cera, the film boosts a star studded line up including Justin Long, Steve Buscemi, Jean Smart, The Hangover star Zach Galifianakis, Ray Liotta and Fred Willard. Doubleday doesn't share much screen time with the actors, which helped to ease her anxiety.

"It sucks because I didn't get to work with too many of those people. So I got to watch on the sidelines. Which is actually kind of nice because it would have been extremely intimidating," recalls the actress. "I think I have one phone conversation with Steve Buscemi on the sidelines. Miguel, the director, was just like read this to him and just wrote it right there because we weren't filming my side of the conversation. That was really fun."

Watch the trailer for Youth in Revolt.

Rebellious acts

With the film dealing so much in rebellion and acting out, it's only natural to find out if the actress had any stories of her own from when she was growing up.

"I roofied some drinks," she joked. "No, you know I think I relate to just having the guy doing all the bad rebelling; me just dictating the relationship."

While she wouldn't cop to any acting out - or admit to actually roofying any drinks - the actress does say that any rebelling she did wasn't against her parents but rather against time and growing up.

"I went through a period in my life where my parents were so laid back that it almost sucked missing out on the rebellious part. I think there is a lot of angst and it's so easy when there is something to rebel against. I think the reason, if anything, why I did anything you know like stay went out late or stayed out all night or those kind of things, I think it was just a rebellion against getting older because I loved being a kid and I loved my childhood. So when I was leaving that part of my life, I think it was just a rebellion to just not leave it," Doubleday recalled.

Continuing in the Family Business

It hasn't quite sunk in to the actress that she is finally living her dream of being an actress. To her it still seems like something that will happen in the future.

"I have always wanted to do this. I just never knew it would be now. I never expected this to be happening right. I figured it would be down the road, you always think when you are younger and you have this dream I am going to be a fireman when I grow up, when I grow up or I am going to be an actor when I grow up. I just kind of still have that feeling, but I guess I am kind of grown up. I hope I can continue doing this," Doubleday explained. "I love being a part of this business and part of this world. It's so creative. The people are crazy and unique and awesome and nice. It's just a great, great creative environment to be a part of."

As for what the future might hold, the actress hopes to continue working in the industry. While she has nothing lined up yet, she is looking to move forward. Says the ing�nue, "For me, this is my first major picture so I would love to continue. This has been an amazing ride."

Youth in Revolt opens Friday.