Chloe Grace Moretz in Kick-Ass (2010)

Chloe grace moretz (14) started out early in showbiz. Her first film — when she was just eight — was Ken Tipton’s Heart of the Beholder, a festival favourite in 2005. She’s played Hit Girl in the superhero film Kick-Ass, based on the graphic novel of the same name by Mark Millar and John Romita Jr. For the role, Chloe trained with Jackie Chan’s stunt crew for three months and did most of her own stunts. Other notable films: a 2005 remake of The Amityville Horror and the 2010 horror-romance Let Me In, where she plays a child vampire.

 

KICK-ASS: Chloe could not bring herself to utter the film’s title in interviews; instead calling it “the film” in public and “Kick-Butt” at home. About her character, she said, “If I ever uttered one word that I said in Kick-Ass, I would be grounded for years! I’d be stuck in my room until I was 20! I would never in a million years say that. I’m an average, everyday girl.”

Natalie Portman in Leon: The Professional (1994)

Natalie portman (29) may have turned in her best performance as the obsessive ballerina in Black Swan now, but her movie debut was far more visceral — as gunslinging, cigarette-smoking 12-year-old Mathilda in Leon: The Professional, where she befriends a hitman played by Jean Reno.

Leon: THE PROFESSIONAL: She was 11 when she was cast. Natalie was originally turned down by Todd M. Thaler (the casting director) for being too young. She, however, returned to the auditions and performed the scene where Mathilda laments the loss of her brother. The director, Luc Besson, was so impressed with her emotional depth that he gave her the role.

 

Chiaki Kuriyama in Kill Bill: Volume 1 (2003)

 

Chiaki Kuriyama (26) is a Japanese actress, singer and model, and is best known for her roles in Quentin Tarantino’s Kill Bill: Volume 1 and the Japanese film Battle Royale.

Kill Bill: Volume I: Chiaki plays Gogo Yubari, the 17-year-old sadistic schoolgirl, who acts as bodyguard to and confidante of Japanese mob boss -Ren Ishii (Lucy Liu). Chiaki’s lines in the film are all in Japanese (except for two words, “hi” and “bingo”). She admitted then that she was learning English and wanted to bag more roles in English-language films. While shooting a fight sequence with Uma Thurman, Chiaki flung her ball and chain out, but accidentally hit Tarantino on the head as he stood by the camera. She is a great fan of Tarantino movies, while the director himself loved Chiaki’s work in Battle Royale.

Abbie Cornish in Sucker Punch (2011)

Abbie Cornish (28) is from Australia and started out as a model at the age of 13. Television roles followed and she won the Australian Film Institute’s Young Actor award for the TV show Wildside. A vegetarian who also enjoys painting, her performances as the lead in 2004’s Somersault and as Fannie Brawne in Bright Star brought her accolades and awards.

SUCKER PUNCH: It’s an action-fantasy film where Abbie was left cut and bloodied on the sets after an action sequence went awry. In a scene, as she was fighting off an attacker armed with a bayonet, she got struck on the head after mistiming a move. “I had blood down my face. I had to clean up all the blood and keep going,” she said later. But did that put her off violent roles? Far from it. In fact, she’s all for more action flicks featuring women.

Noomi Rapace in The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo (2009)

Noomi rapace (31) is a Swedish actress best known for her portrayal of Lisbeth Salander in the adaptations of the Millennium Trilogy — The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo, The Girl Who Played with Fire and The Girl Who Kicked the Hornet’s Nest. She’s also won critical acclaim for her role as a troubled teen mother in the Danish film Daisy Diamond. Her first English-speaking role? Watch out for Guy Ritchie’s Sherlock Holmes: A Game of Shadows, where she plays a gypsy girl.

The girl with the dragon tattoo: Noomi is Lisbeth Salander, a sociopathic but brilliant hacker. Along with a journo, Mikael Blomkvist, she unravels the dark family history of the powerful Vanger clan. Salander can be pitiless, courageous and savage as she finds out just how far she has to go to protect herself. Noomi prepared for seven months for the role. She was on a strict diet, took kick-boxing lessons and had her eyebrow and nose pierced to look the part.

Saoirse Ronan in Hanna (2011)

Saoirse Ronan (17) grabbed eyeballs with Atonement, where she played a 13-year-old aspiring novelist. The role got her several high-worth nominations, including a Bafta, a Golden Globe and an Academy Award. Apart from her role in Hanna, the Irish actress is also supposed to play a teen assassin in Geoffrey Fletcher’s directorial debut, Violet & Daisy.

Hanna: It is the story of a 16-year-old, who was raised by her father to become a perfect assassin and is dispatched on a mission across Europe. The film united Saoirse with Joe Wright, her director in Atonement. She trained in martial arts, stick-fighting and weapons training for the role that required her to climb, jump, run at full speed, as well as battle opponents with fists, feet and firearms.

Ellen Page in Super (2010)

Ellen page (24) is a Canadian actress who has already gone places in her career — with Golden Globe and Academy Award nominations for playing the title character in Juno (2007) and a plum role in Christopher Nolan’s psychological thriller Inception. She started her acting career at the age of 10.

super: An American dark comedy, written and directed by James Gunn. Ellen plays a neurotic comic book shop employee called Libby who volunteers to be the “kid sidekick” to Rainn Wilson’s superhero The Crimson Bolt and calls herself Boltie. And what does Boltie say? “Wanna go fight some crime?” Many claimed that the film was a copy of Kick-Ass, another superheroes-without-powers movie. However, Mark Millar, the creator of Kick-Ass, denied this allegation and came out in support of Super.