She landed the part by lying about her age: Quvenzhane Wallis was five, and the filmmakers were auditioning only girls at least six years old.
But they believed her fib and tried her out - and were blown away, giving her the starring role in the low-budget Beasts of the Southern Wild over 4,000 other hopefuls.
And now she could become the youngest winner of the best actress Oscar, at the 85th Academy Awards, the climax of Hollywood's annual awards season, next weekend.
"It was very clear ... you don't meet six-year-olds who have that quality," said director Benh Zeitlin. "She just had this natural charisma and focus and fierceness and wiseness and morality.
You don't meet six-year-olds who have that quality. She just had this natural charisma and focus and fierceness and wiseness and morality
"Coming out of a body that small and a mind that young, it's almost alien and alien in a way that goes kind of straight at your heart. It's her perspective that unlocks the truth in the film."