When it came to confronting the deeply emotional subject matter of cancer in the heartbreaking drama "My Sister's Keeper," acclaimed actress Abigail Breslin admits filming the scenes put her on an emotional roller coaster that was sometimes a difficult ride.

"It's really hard to be crying and screaming in a scene one minute, go to lunch and talk and hang out with everybody, and then come back from lunch and do it all over again," said Breslin in a recent @ The Movies interview. "It's definitely challenging."

At least, the "Little Miss Sunshine" Oscar nominee added, co-star Cameron Diaz did her best to keep the cast and crews at ease with her culinary skills.

"When we were filming, she made us fajitas, chili cheese fries and guacamole," Breslin enthused. "She was great."

Opening in theaters Friday, "My Sister's Keeper" is based on the best-selling novel by Jodi Picoult, an author who not only works unique twists into her work, but is unafraid to take on controversial subject matter.

In this case, at the heart of the firestorm is genetic engineering, and how a baby, Anna Fitzgerald, is essentially harvested by her parents, Sara (Cameron Diaz) and Brian (Jason Patric) as a means to help treat their 2-year-old daughter Kate's (Sofia Vassilieva) leukemia. But after 11 years of undergoing painful procedures and hospital procedures to keep Kate alive, Anna's (Breslin) decided she's had enough of being her sister's keeper.

Hiring an attorney (Alec Baldwin) to sue her parents to gain "medical emancipation," Anna faces an unimaginable quandary that could tear her family apart.

"My character is put in a very difficult situation right from the very day she was born, having to give parts of herself to her sister -- and she's giving happily," Breslin said. "But now she really doesn't know what her place is in the family. She's come to a point where she has to make a decision between proving her love for her sister and alienating herself from her family."

"My Sister's Keeper" didn't mark the first time Breslin, 13, acted opposite A-list actors the likes of Diaz and Baldwin. Her previous roles in films like "Nim's Island" afforded her the opportunity to star with Jodie Foster and Gerard Butler, while "No Reservations" put her in the company of Catherine Zeta-Jones and Aaron Eckhart.

Then, of course, there was "Little Miss Sunshine," where her co-stars included Alan Arkin, Greg Kinnear, Toni Collette and Steve Carrel. It gave Breslin one of many opportunities to learn as much as she could about the acting craft from the best.

"Just by watching them work, you learn something from them -- definitely more so than them giving you advice," Breslin said. "The best way to learn is by watching."

The funny thing is the esteemed company Breslin has kept since her Oscar nomination hasn't fazed her friends a bit. And she couldn't be happier.

"My life hasn't really changed that much. My friends think it's cool that I act, but it doesn't really matter," Breslin said. "They're like, 'OK, it's cool. What else is going on?'"