Lindsay Lohan admits flaws but says career not over

NEW YORK (Reuters) - Troubled actress Lindsay Lohan has admitted she was "irresponsible" in a new interview released on Tuesday, but downplayed alcohol or drug troubles and declared her acting career would now come first.

Lohan, 24, recently released early from jail and a rehabilitation program and now ordered to attend behavioral therapy classes twice a week, told Vanity Fair magazine in an interview conducted one week before her jail term began that she would cut back on hedonistic ways to revive her career.

"I want my career back," she told the magazine. "I want the respect that I had when I was doing great movies. And if that takes not going out to a club at night, then so be it. It's not fun anyway."

The "Freaky Friday" actress said landing in Los Angeles several years ago was "very go-go-go" with ample freedom and money that brought upon damaging behavior, but now she "was fine" and her acting ability was in top shape.

"I don't care what anyone says. I know that I'm a damn good actress," she said. "And I know that in my past I was young and irresponsible, but that's what growing up is. You learn from your mistakes."

Adding to her confusion, she said, was that she constantly read U.S. tabloids, which she called "really scary and sad."

"I would look up to those girls...the Britneys and whatever. And I would be like, I want to be like that," she said.

Reports of alcohol abuse were overplayed, she said, while dealing with her father was far harder.

"I think everyone has their own addictions and hopefully learns how to get past them," she said. "I think my biggest focus for myself is learning how to continue to get through the trauma that my father has caused in my life."

Lohan admitted in 2007 that she was addicted to alcohol and drugs, and went to rehab three times. She was ordered to wear an alcohol monitoring anklet in May this year and was jailed for missing multiple alcohol education classes imposed as part of her probation three years ago.

In the Vanity Fair article Lohan said she had "never abused prescription drugs" and in part she blamed some of her wayward behavior on hanging with the wrong crowd.

"So many people around me would say they cared for the wrong reasons. A lot of people were pulling from me, taking from me and not giving. I had a lot of people that were there for me for, you know, the party."

She also lamented that young Hollywood male actors are treated differently and "still get to keep their contracts, they still get to keep their roles" regardless of their antics, according to the full interview reported in the New York Post.

The career of the once promising actress, who starred in "Mean Girls" and "The Parent Trap," has foundered in the past three years, with Lohan hitting the headlines repeatedly for nights on the town and bizarre behavior.

Her legal troubles have delayed shooting on her next movie in which she plays 1970s porn star Linda Lovelace.

(Reporting by Christine Kearney, editing by Patricia Reaney)