It’s a Juggling Act

Jordana Brewster is a sophomore at Yale University who has just chosen English as her major. But the 20-year-old is not a typical student--she’s an up-and-coming actress who stars with Cameron Diaz in the new drama “The Invisible Circus.”

Set in 1976, “The Invisible Circus” features Brewster as 18-year-old Phoebe O’Connor, who decides to travel to Europe by herself to find out the truth about her beloved sister Faith’s (Diaz) death in Portugal several years earlier. During her journey of self-discovery, Phoebe becomes romantically involved with her sister’s ex-boyfriend (Christopher Eccleston).

Based on the novel by Jennifer Egan, the Fine Line release, which opens Friday, was written and directed by Adam Brooks.

Brewster has an international background. She was born in Panama City and lived in London and Brazil before moving to New York City when she was 10. Her mother is Maria Joa, a former Brazilian model who appeared in a Sports Illustrated swimsuit edition.

Beginning her career on the CBS soap “As the World Turns,” Brewster appeared in the 1998 movie thriller “The Faculty” and the NBC miniseries “The ‘60s.” She recently completed Rob Cohen’s action thriller “The Fast and the Furious,” which is due later this year.

Brewster recently chatted about “Invisible Circus” by phone from New Haven.

Question: Has it been difficult juggling school and career? Are you trying just to act during your summer vacations?

Answer: That is ideally what I try to do, but movies get pushed [back]. That’s what happened to me this summer. I was supposed to complete this Universal film called “The Fast and the Furious” that was supposed to be done by August, and it wasn’t done until late October. So I couldn’t come back for a semester.

Q: Are you taking any drama classes at Yale?

A: I am pretty much concentrating on [other] academic courses, but I may take a theater studies course. If you are going to do a play, then you have to commit to being here every weekend. That is not fair if you have to be auditioning on weekends or going back [home] to New York.

Q: How did “Invisible Circus” come about? Did director Adam Brooks see you in “The ‘60s”?

A: I just went in to audition. Originally, when I got the appointment, I hadn’t read the script yet. I said [to myself], I shouldn’t be going because I look nothing like Cameron. There is no way they are going to cast me. The first [audition] I think I was dressed to get on a plane, so I had put on makeup and I wasn’t dressed casually. The feedback was good, but Adam was really concerned that I was too old or too confident--which was really funny to me.

For the second audition, I was told to wear no makeup and wear jeans. Then I read again in San Francisco for Adam. We just went through the whole script. Then when I was doing press for “The Faculty” in Europe, he called me and said I won the role.

Q: Did you ever suffer from the same alienation and lack of self-confidence as Phoebe?

A: More so at the age of 14 and 15, 16--especially when we moved from Brazil to America. I felt like I didn’t belong at all. Everyone sort of mocked me for really being close to my family and close to my mother. I always hoped something would click, and I would feel fine about myself and not be anxious. It is like once you get over one insecurity and there is another one.

Q: Did everything eventually click for you?

A: No. That is when I really felt hopeless. I felt it is either going to happen in college--everyone considers that passage into adulthood--but no, I didn’t feel that happening. I am really independent in a sense that I worked at the age of 15 and made that decision on my own. But on the other hand, it wasn’t like I wanted to get away from home. I sort of like my home and I love relying on my mother for advice. I never felt I had to gain that independence and, in a sense, I haven’t.

Q: What was it like then to make this movie at 19 in Europe without your family around?

A: It was helpful in a sense. It is the first time I worked only with adults. Before there were teenagers or kids my age. So that was very, very different.

It’s strange to me how everybody says, ‘You were in Portugal and Paris. You are so lucky.’ I think if I had appreciated the whole experience, I wouldn’t have been able to make the movie in an honest way and portray her. I think I had to be, in a sense, tortured the whole time. Had I been appreciative and gone to museums every free moment that I had, I couldn’t have given my all to the movie.

Q: How did you get involved in acting?

A: I always acted as a little kid. It was my own idea, but it was also imposed on me indirectly because everyone would call me very dramatic. So, I think, I always had this idea of myself as a very emotional, dramatic person and the only way to get that out would be as an actor.

I was 15 when I decided I want to do it professionally. I was doing plays in middle school and then some friends of mine were in this class that met twice a week. It didn’t really teach people how to act, but taught you how to make a resume and how to audition and all the things I didn’t know about. They had a showcase and that’s how I got my first agent. One of the first jobs I got was the soap opera “As the World Turns.”

Q: How long did you do the soap?

A: I did that for three years. It was such a normal experience. I changed high schools and my school was three blocks away from the CBS studios. It was great because my life didn’t change that much.

It is a very tame soap compared to the crazy story lines that other soaps have, which is great because it’s a little more grounded if that is your first acting job. Luckily, the guy who played my dad on the soap, Benjamin Henrickson, graduated from Juilliard. He’s an amazing actor, so he took me under his wing and gave me advice. It was great training.

Q: Your grandfather Kingman Brewster was a former president of Yale. It must be family tradition to attend the university.

A: No, my dad went to Harvard and he transferred to Yale after taking a year off from Harvard. My sister is at Georgetown University. She’s two years younger.