I’m someone who can fall in love at the drop of the hat. My parents raised me to be very accepting of other people, so because of that, I feel like I might be overly accepting of girls. If a girl shows any interest, I’m like, ‘Yes! I love you, you’re amazing!’

I like girls I can have deep conversations with. The meaning of life and existence – you can go on forever about that stuff. When girls play the ditzy-dumb thing, I’m like, ‘Oh, God, please stop.’

There’s no glitz and glamour in Hollywood. It’s all down and dirty, I swear.

I’m the same person in public that I am back home, so I don’t put on an act or anything like that. This is who I am and that’s just how I am when I am who I am.

I’ve been raised with equal rights being one of the foremost morals in my family, so I’m comfortable with it. I have a lot of friends that are gay, and they’re not my “gay friends” — they’re my friends. I don’t think about it.

I’m 17 years old. You have all your life to party and to drink and do stuff like that. You don’t need to do it when you’re so young. I just like doing the simple things — going on hikes… It’s so nice. I enjoy being 17 while I’m 17 because you’re only 17 once, and I don’t want to waste that and ruin it.

This is really weird but its macaroni and cheese with sweet peas and apple sauce all mixed together! It’s really good! You must try it!

Fun and outgoing are the most important things! Pretty is good too! But even if someone is pretty, you can’t just sit and stare at each other so it’s good to have something to talk to about. I’d like someone who’s interested in the same things as I am a.k.a. sports, someone I can watch sports with, someone who wants to get out and do stuff.

I feel like I have a mix of both Kentucky and LA. Literally half of my life, since I was 9 years old, I’ve been going back and forth between Kentucky and Los Angeles, spending the majority of my time LA. It’s cool because I can bring something different to role than maybe someone who’s been raised in Hollywood would.

The intimacy that you get with an independent film like this is unlike a studio film. The collaboration and the creative freedom that you have is really nice. I love doing giant studio pictures, they’re a lot of fun, big budgets and a lot of action and long shoots. I also love breaking it down and doing character pieces– it sounds really actor-y to call them pieces, but I like changing it up like that.

Guys and girls can be friends. I know, it’s unbelievable, but really it’s true, it happens. I’ve grown up with having really good friends that are girls, not girlfriends, I’ve had those, but friends that are girls are great. I grew up across the street from two girls and they were both my age and we were really good friends and we played guys stuff. Not girl stuff. But, we’d play kickball in the streets, we’d play football and everything like that. It was a good time and I think people need to realize that they’re humans too and it’s not a different species. You can still be friends with them.

I used to be obsessed with Batman. I mean obsessed with Batman. I dressed like Batman. I had every single possible Batman toy on the planet. My favorite toy of all time I think was this big giant bat cave that I had. I put Batman in there and little things would shoot out, he’d slide across the rope and that was so much fun.

I wish I could say I’ve never gotten rejected, but that’s definitely a lie. It’s definitely hard, for me, I guess what I’ve always done since I was little was, just sort of let go of it pretty easily and sort of always looking forward to the next project. And I had a thinking that everything happens for a reason, so if I didn’t get one project, it’s because in the long run it may not have been best for me. It’s probably just delusional, and I didn’t get the part because I wasn’t good enough for it or I wasn’t right for it, but I don’t tell myself that, so I definitely try to keep my chin up.

In between movies I just pretty much kick it. I sleep until two in the afternoon, it’s quite lovely, and I just sort of veg around. Of course I’m always reading scripts and reading books, trying to figure out what the next project is going to be. But other than that I just love spending time with my family and friends and hang out with my little brother.

I love lying on my floor and listening to music; it’s one of my favorite things, I light incent and candles, that kind of stuff and listen to music and just exist.

I think Zoe Saldana is really pretty. I like her a lot, she was in “Avatar,” but she was also in “Star Trek.” She was awesome in that, and also I like Eva Mendes a lot. That’s my type, like, kind of exotic, that’s where I live in that realm of women. Southern girls are great, don’t get me wrong, but growing up around them, it’s nice to see something different.

I like both athletic girls and girlie girls. It depends on their personality. I like girls who can go out and play sports with me and throw the football around, but you don’t want a girl who’s too much tougher than you.

I crack my neck and fingers all the time, but for some reason, whenever I hear someone cracking their ankles, I say, “Eww! There’s something wrong with you!”

I could not eat the stuff they eat on Fear Factor. The thought of eating bugs, worms or anything else alive is just gross!

I used to have two imaginary friends named Hamo and Damo. One of them was pink, and the other was blue. I don’t know why they were named Hamo and Damo, but we’d sing Barney songs together, as embarrassing as that is!

I used to be obsessed with Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles when I was younger. So obsessed that every time I’d walk over a drain, I’d bend over and say, “Hi, turtles!”

When I was like, 5 years old, I used to have really bad nightmares about the Wicked Witch of the West from The Wizard of Oz. In my dream, I would open my eyes and look out the window, and she would be there! I’d wake up scared to death, just screaming and yelling.

I want to try directing too, whenever that comes. I have a book that I’m interested in, and I possibly want to try to adapt the screenplay myself. I figure I can adapt a book and then have somebody come in and completely fix it for me. But, you know, I want to try some directing someday, and I am definitely going to stick with acting.

As an actor, you imagine every single day on set. So, as we already use our imaginations every day anyway, we just have to stretch it out just a little bit farther and imagine that, not only are we different people, but we’re in an entirely different world. Sure, it can be hard sometimes, but you just have to use your imagination and rely upon everyone else to give you the right tools you need to make it seem real.

I was on a date, and we were sitting at dinner. I tried to put my arm around her; I was doing the yarn thing where you lift your arms up. As I did that, I hit the table and spilled a drink.

Every time I read anything, whether it be a book, a script or anything, I automatically imagine myself as the boy in the plot. I don’t know why. Seriously, anything, if I’m reading a magazine article or whatever, I picture myself as the kid people are talking about. It’s really weird. I don’t know why I do that.

My fans mean the world to me. Without the fans, I wouldn’t have a job. When people hire you for a movie, they want to hire you because you’re going to bring an audience to their film. If I didn’t have people out there who enjoyed watching me as an actor, I wouldn’t get hired. Nobody would want to see the movie!

I’m open to doing all sorts of things. I love doing comedies and dramas. Anything that comes my way, I’m open to it. If it’s a good script and everything’s right, I’ll pursue it.

I’ve learned a lot throughout the years that I’ve worked with all these great actors and everything. One of the biggest things I’ve learned on every shoot is patience. It takes so much patience to be an actor. There will be days when you’ll come in at 6 in the morning, and you’ll sit around all day long and maybe only do one shot. You just have to bear with them. You just have to keep your head on straight during that time. You can’t get lazy or tired. You have to really make sure that you stay in character, even when you have those long days.

I still live in Kentucky. I was born and raised in Kentucky, and I still live there. I think that’s the best thing for me–to kind of keep a level head. When I go back home, I have a completely normal life. I have my friends, I’m on a basketball team, I go to the mall, and we just do normal kid things. It’s kind of nice to kind of escape the whole movie world and just become a normal kid again.

It’s not all glamour. I learned that right away. I thought getting into acting would be a breeze, and nice and easy. I thought, “How hard could it be?” I’ve done 11 movies now [as of 2007], and I’ve learned that every single character has different challenges. On set, it’s not all fun and games. I have to do school and work long hours on set, as well. All that stuff kind of combines together. It’s not as easy as it seems. That was the biggest shocker to me.

Bailee Madison plays my little sister [in Bridge to Terabithia,] and as you can see, she is just the most adorable little kid on the face of the Earth! She was amazing in the movie. One day, I was playing and she was filming a scene, and I didn’t realize that, and I saw her crying and I was like, “Bailee, what’s wrong? Are you okay?” She’s like, “Yeah, I’m just getting ready for my scene!” She’s the most grown up little person I’ve ever met. I actually don’t think I’ve met anyone like her in my life. I love her so much–she’s like the little sister I don’t have.

I love New Zealand! There’s a big volcano, and the sunrise is beautiful.

I like brainy girls who can respond to what I’m saying.

I think the corniest souvenir I bought was a golden Oscar statue that said “Best Teacher,” and I gave it to her when I got back to school. I think I was hoping she’d be nice and not give me too much homework!

When I was around 9, I think, I opened for the boy band O-town. Well not all by myself, but, with Rich Cronin (lead singer for LFO). I did, like, two rap songs with him on stage in front of a few thousand people. It was awesome, but I think I’ll stick with acting!

I am very critical of myself. I can never just sit back and enjoy the movie. I find myself critiquing myself a lot, like “I said that weird,” or “That was a weird face,” or “I have a funky hair thing going on there.” Stuff like that just bugs me.

I get asked a lot about what my favorite movie is and why, and that’s hard because it changes as I see more and more movies, plus it kinda depends on what kind of mood you’re in. So, let’s see, if I had to pick just one all time favorite movie, I guess it would probably be, this may sound crazy, but it’s The Fast and the Furious. It’s a fun movie to watch, and I love cars.

I love doing roles and movies that are different from each other. That’s kind of why I like to be an actor, because I get to play different characters and pretend I’m different people going through different situations. Getting to do different genres of movies means you’re gonna have different types of situations and stuff like that. So I want to try and do every type of genre there is out there.

I love what I do, and I can’t imagine ever wanting to do anything else, except maybe direct. So, as long as I am able to, I want to keep acting.

Imagination is an important part of everybody’s life. With today’s kids, imagination is lost because kids play so many video games, and it’s bad for that. My little brother plays a lot, and I was always outside playing Army, rolling around on the ground, playing with squirt guns and playing kickball. I think kids need to do that more often.

I had to beg and beg my parents since I was 3 or 4 years old, and they said, “Why not play sports?” They heard all this negative stuff about Hollywood and being an actor. Finally, they opened the Yellow Pages and we met with an acting coach, and to this day, I have never had an acting class in my life. They tried me out there and suggested I go to pilot season in Los Angeles. I was so excited and begged and begged and begged, and so they took me out for one pilot season. I got a pilot, and things took off from there and never stopped.

I got a lot of crap from kids in school when I first started acting. I didn’t understand that, because it was something I loved doing, but I learned that you just don’t let it bother you. I didn’t understand what they were laughing about. I just ignored it.

If I’m not working and I’m home then I’m always on the go playing football or going out with my friends. I don’t sit still much.

I like my hair much better long.

My family and I are very, very close, not only as a family, but as friends. I practically am with my mom 24/7 because she’s been on set with me since I was nine years old and so, I’m around her a lot. I just feel like I have a good friendship with my family.

When it comes to girls, I’m the shyest person on the face of the planet. I can’t talk to girls. I get nervous, I get tongue-tied, I get sweaty palms — all the tell-tale symptoms of being a nervous guy.

I’ve worked with Tom Hanks and Robin Williams, some big names and I’ve never felt intimidated for some reason. I don’t know why? I should feel intimidated I know that, but I just feel like they’re normal people too and they do the same thing I do.

I believe people are genuinely good. I don’t like to see the bad in people, so because of that, I could see myself falling into a bad situation. But thankfully, I haven’t yet.

I’ve always been a big Jake Gyllenhaal fan. I like how he goes from doing a bigger studio movie to a more independent film. I am a huge Christian Bale fan; I think he’s incredible and can play any role and kill it. And I’m also a die-hard Ryan Gosling fan, so those are my guys I’d like to be like.