Contrary to what you probably think, Lindsay Lohan did not get into acting to make headlines and acquire a paparazzi entourage.
"I didn't get into this business to be a celebrity on the cover of tabloids, and I've been a target—and I'm not that interesting," the 22-year-old actress insisted during an interview on The Ellen DeGeneres Show airing Thursday.
"It distracts people—studio heads, everyone, and they get nervous. I've been through a lot. I was 19 years old when things happened, and I'm ready to work. I'm responsible and I can be on time and I learn from my mistakes."
Insisting that "everything fell into place" recently, Lohan says she's ready to refocus on her career, now that she's single again following a breakup that apparently took her completely by surprise.
"I had no idea what was going on," Lohan recalled of the days leading up to her admission to E! News that she and girlfriend Samantha Ronson were taking a break. "I just hadn't seen her in like a week. She, like, disappeared."
But the split was not due to her roving eye or anything like that, Lohan said, as she began disproving her own comment about not being interesting.
"I don't believe in cheating on someone," said the star of the upcoming comedy Labor Pains.
Lohan and DeGeneres also commiserated about having to deal with breakups under the glare of the public eye.
"I kind of lost my career for a little while and I went away," DeGeneres said, presumably referring to parting ways with Anne Heche in 2000. "I went to Ojai, California. I stayed away for three years, and I literally hibernated and got myself back together. Do you feel like you want to run away?" she asked Lohan.
To which the actress replied, not really.
"I feel like I want to get my career back in shape," Lohan said. "There are some shows I'm producing that I'm really excited about. I'm doing a movie in October. So it's been nice to just kind of...You know when people are together so much it gets really difficult, and you forget who you are because you're more concerned about being with the other person.
"I think [the breakup has] been really good for me. I thought it would be so much harder and it hasn't been...I’ve had great people surrounding me and I’ve just been working every single day."
(Originally published April 22, 2009, at 9:44 p.m. PT)