How Minnie Driver Gets Away With Never Going to the Gym

April 9, 2014 — -- Minnie Driver has the most adorable bodyguard in history - her 5-year-old son Henry.

"The paparazzi thing bothers him a lot," Driver, 44, told ABC News. "Henry said, 'Back off you bad guys!' to the paparazzi the other day ... it was very funny and it made people laugh a lot."

When he's not around "those bad guys," Driver said her son is "funny, cool and sweet" and already active in social awareness.

The "About a Boy" star spoke to ABC as part of a partnership between Claritin and the "Be a Claritin Trailblazer" program in support of Rails-To-Trails, a non-profit organization that converts old railroad lines into public trails.

It's environmental campaigns and causes that Driver said she is trying to instill in her son at an early age. In fact, he's got his own event coming up for charity at just 5!

"He is just about to do a little sponsored swim," she said. "He gets to choose where that money will go to ... I think you can't start early enough with social awareness for your kids."

The actress added that Henry loves coming to the set and "only thinks I'm famous because I'm his mother."

"He likes seeing the thing that keeps me from being with him at home all the time," she said.

Driver has another passion that happily takes up a lot of her time - Twitter.

"I'm mad about it!" she said. "It's where I get my news from these days ... As a celebrity, it's having a forum where you can answer the nonsensical rubbish that is written about you or not engage with that. It's given a little bit of control back, I love it."

She said she likes engaging with fans and that Twitter is like reading social media postcards from one person to another.

When she's not teaching her son to give back or tweeting up a storm, Driver is staying in shape the natural way.

"I surf and I do ballet," she said. "I don't really do the gym at all."