Chloe Grace Moretz’s first big movie role was as Ryan Reynolds’s daughter in The Amityville Horror (2005) reboot when she was seven. By age 12, she was working with Martin Scorsese in the 3D fantasy Hugo. But she is best known as the potty-mouthed pre-pubescent superhero Hit Girl in the Kick-Ass films.

At 18, Chloe has had over 50 screen outings, but even then 2016 promises to be a particularly eventful year for her. The young actress plays a love interest in an edgy romance alongside Ansel Elgort in November Criminals, a sorority girl in Neighbors 2, and a young woman dealing with a rare auto-immune disorder in Brain on Fire.... But she starts the year on the run from aliens in Friday film The 5th Wave, as a teenager named Cassie Sullivan who fights to save her younger brother during an alien invasion that arrives on earth in multiple waves. The film is based on Rick Yancey’s YA bestseller that spent 21 weeks on The New York Times bestseller list.

Chloe chatted with t2 via video conference from Cancun, Mexico, about the film, aliens and being a Hollywood veteran at 18.

What drew you to Cassie Sullivan?

I think what I enjoyed about Cassie is that she’s not your typical heroine. You know what I mean? You don’t look at her when she’s in her school environment and you go: ‘That girl’s the badass. She’s going to be the one who saves the world’. She’s an ordinary girl who’s not too great at soccer, doesn’t have the hot boyfriend. She’s just your average teenage girl. I like playing a character like that that is not too obvious.

How much do you relate to Cassie in real life?

I think I can relate to Cassie pretty heavily, because she is an eager, typical teenage girl. She’s a little bit younger than me but she is not hard to relate to. I definitely relate to her fight and her perseverance for her family and the love of her brother and parents.

Do you believe that there is something out there?

(Laughs) Yeah, I was abducted. I am an alien!

Hollywood has had a fascination with aliens for decades. How does this film stand out?

I think this story is unique because unlike every other movie that we’ve seen with either a young adult lead or a young adult female lead, it doesn’t centre around romance and love. She’s not fighting for the love of a man. She’s not fighting for the love of anything. She’s literally fighting to find her brother. And in the midst of trying to find her brother and fighting for their lives, there’s an alien invasion going on. The basis of this story is a human story about familial love and human perseverance.  The whole sci-fi and alien aspect of it is what holds it together and encompasses it. But it isn’t the driving force.

What was it like to shoot in Atlanta, Georgia, where you were born?

(Laughs) Oh, it was great. I got to go home and see my cousins every other day and got to be a part of their lives. I don’t get to do that very much because I don’t live there anymore.  But it was awesome. It was fun. We actually shot 20 minutes away from my hometown (Cartersville), on a freeway that when I lived there, we took every day.  So it was kind of strange.

You started acting at age seven. Do you already feel like a Hollywood veteran?

(Laughs) I don’t think you’re ever quite a veteran. I think that for my age I know a lot of stuff, and I’ve learned a lot of stuff, because I’ve been lucky enough to start at such a young age. But, whenever I’m on set, I’m learning newer and newer things and always changing as a person and as an actor. I think that’s why I enjoy it. With every new character I play, I find a different part of myself that

I’m able to express in a different light and show a different piece of me.

Is this a good time to be an actress in Hollywood?

I’m lucky to be an 18-year-old girl in this time period in film. I’m able to take on so many amazing roles. If this was 30 years ago, I would have been playing the girlfriend, daughter, or damsel in distress. Whereas now I’m able to play roles like Hit Girl and Cassie. I can take on what used to be the patriarchal character in the movie, but now is becoming more matriarchal. Things are shifting. I think we’re all lucky to be making films at a time where we’re not being aggressive to anyone or any sex or gender.

I would love to hang out with Chloe because....Tell t2@abp.in

The 5th Wave is currently playing in cinemas