Entertainment

‘Getting By’ quite niecely

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Emma Roberts may play a cigarette-smoking bad girl in the new high school emo-drama “The Art of Getting By,” but in real life the 20-year-old actress is at the top of her Hollywood class.

First of all — will it ever not be a first of all? — her aunt is Julia Roberts, still one of the biggest stars in the world at 43. Her dad and Julia’s brother, Eric Roberts, is also a veteran actor, recently seen playing a mob boss in “The Dark Knight.”

But Emma says she’s not sitting down for career consultations with either of them.

“I have other friends whose parents are actors — we don’t really talk about it [with them],” Roberts tells The Post. “When [Julia and I] are together, it’s like, we just chill. I hang out with her kids. And we talk about more life stuff, not so much ‘Have you read this script?’ I think people have this image of us sitting around drinking coffee and talking about every script.”

Not that she needs career counseling, having successfully navigated the tricky gap between her kid-actor years on shows like Nickelodeon’s “Unfabulous” and her newly grown-up image, showcased in darker material such as last year’s “Twelve” and this year’s slasher-comedy flick “Scream 4.”

In her newest role, Roberts plays opposite British actor Freddie Highmore (“Finding Neverland”) in an indie film about two high school seniors trying to figure out what they want and who they are. Roberts says the high school experience was a bit of a mystery to her.

“It was definitely different, because I was home-schooled and tutored on set,” says Roberts, who went on her first audition at 9 years old. “But I got the best of both worlds from my friends, with high school dances and football games and stuff like that I got to go to. But no drama.”

Really?

“Well, some drama,” she allows.

Roberts may not have had a clique back then, but she’s definitely in one now, as one of an emerging pack of young actresses, including Dakota Fanning, 17, Emma Watson of “Harry Potter” fame, 21, and Disney star Selena Gomez, 18. They’re the anti-Brat Pack, a seemingly well-mannered bunch of ambitious young women who are rarely snapped in compromising positions. The watchword, for this crew, seems to be determination, not debauchery.

“I’ve met all of those girls,” says Roberts, “and I think they’re all really cool. Everyone, for the most part, is really nice. You see these people in passing and it’s kind of awkward: I know who they are, they know who I am, and you’re like, ‘Hi.’ But there’s a few I’ve worked with and become close with. People are so competitive, it’s nice to have that camaraderie.”

Who, for example?

“Just doing that always feels ridiculous,” demurs Roberts, who declines to name-drop or dish on the antics of her slightly-older counterparts, like Lindsay Lohan.

“It’s such a funny thing, you know, what people choose to do in their free time,” she says diplomatically. “For me, I love to have fun — I just like to do it in private, on my own time, with my close friends. I do understand why people like to go out, but there’s a way to do it where it’s

not . . . too much, I guess.”

Though Roberts hasn’t been photographed lurching drunkenly out of a nightclub, she has been noted for her style. She turned heads at last month’s Met Gala in a black-and-white Michael Kors gown, and regularly makes the pages of the gossip mags with her cute or daring ensembles. (London’s Daily Mail recently gave a nod to her sky-high Christian Louboutin Lady Daf heels.)

“I work with the Maude girls,” she says of the styling team Emily Current and Meritt Elliott, who also have a denim line, Current/Elliott. “They’re awesome, and they’re really good at collaborating with me. They don’t just put me in things that look good, they put me in things that fit my personality.”

That said, Roberts insists she’s low-maintenance most of the time. “I could wear jeans every day of my life,” she says, “but I try to make an effort to dress up. Sometimes I have a ‘Sex and the City’ day where I want to wear a fancy dress to dinner for no reason.”

Next up, the young actress is working on a romantic comedy, “Celeste and Jesse Forever,” starring Andy Samberg and Rashida Jones, the latter of whom co-wrote the screenplay. Roberts will play a pop star. And just to be clear, she did not ask her family for approval on this.

“I think it’s important for me to do this,” she says. “If I make a wrong choice, at least it’s my choice.”

sara.stewart@nypost.com