Chloë Grace Moretz Charms Hollywood

Her middle name, Grace, is oddly fitting: While she doesn't exactly come across as delicate—at least, not to anyone who's seen her in either Kick-Ass or Let Me In, the 2010 films in which Chloë Grace Moretz played, respectively, a preteen bruiser and a bloodthirsty mini-vamp—there's a certain balletic quality to her movements on screen.

In person, she is an unusual mixture of scrappiness and elegance as well. Dressed in a slim gray cable-knit sweater, dark skinny jeans, and a pair of black ankle boots, Chloë looks convincingly sleek; her long blonde hair is freshly brushed, and her fingernails are polished. But when she speaks, it's with an almost boyishly low voice, and she has a delightfully sarcastic sense of humor. Doubtless, this dichotomy is precisely what her directors—and her audiences—find so compelling.

"I really liked her in (500) Days of Summer," says Drew Barrymore, who recently cast Chloë as a lovelorn street tough in a ten-minute short that doubled as the video for the Best Coast song "Our Deal." "She was sage without being precocious— that's very rare at her age. And then, when I saw her in Kick-Ass, I just went crazy. I live for cool girls, and Chloë is one of the most rock 'n' roll young ladies I've ever seen."

Like Drew, Chloë started acting at a very early age: She was only six when she booked her role in the 2005 remake of The Amityville Horror, having followed a big brother (she has four of them) into the industry. "When Trevor was fifteen and I was five," the Atlanta-born actress recalls, "he'd be practicing his monologues, and I just started memorizing them too. I guess something clicked." Shortly thereafter, her family relocated from New York City to Los Angeles. Chloë has been working steadily ever since, but it's only been within the last couple of years that she's emerged as a star: She was still anonymous enough that when she auditioned for this month's Hugo—a Paris-set fantasy in which she speaks with an English accent—the director, Martin Scorsese, mistook her for a native Brit.

"I play a book-smart 1930s girl," Chloë explains, "who meets a boy, played by Asa Butterfield, and then they go on this crazy adventure and find out all of these amazing things about their lives." Shot in 3-D, this big-screen adaptation of a best-selling novel (The Invention of Hugo Cabret) is far more family-friendly than the films that Chloë is best known for. But she hasn't turned away from the dark side completely. Next May, she'll appear alongside Johnny Depp and Michelle Pfeiffer in Tim Burton's gothic vampire flick Dark Shadows as a "fun-loving hippie with a secret." And Hick, which premiered in September at the Toronto International Film Festival, is, as she cheerfully says, "so twisted!"

Much has been made of Chloë's ability—and willingness—to play violent, foulmouthed, or imperiled characters. There was a good deal of hand-wringing about her portrayal of Hit-Girl even before Kick-Ass came out. But Chloë, who's quite sunny in real life, doesn't see what all the fuss is about. "I mean, it's acting," she says, an unspoken "duh" implicit in her earnest tone. "I like these roles because they're not me. That's what's fun about it. If I played another version of Chloë all the time, it would be boring." And there's another potential benefit to the choices she's made: Frequent work in so-called "adult" fare often makes it easier for a young actress to transition into professional adulthood, which is a priority for Chloë: "I'd love to be in this industry for the rest of my life—to write, direct, and produce my own movies," she says. "I'm an overachiever, you know? I'm always trying to find a way to do more."