'Super 8': Meet the kids

'Super 8': Meet the kids -- Get to know the bright young actors who play the wide-eyed filmmakers within the J.J. Abrams film.

Elle Fanning

• Age: 13
• Hometown: Los Angeles
• Character: Alice Dainard, the leading lady

Since her film debut in 2001 as a younger version of her sister Dakota's character in "I Am Sam," Fanning has appeared in such films as "Babel," "Reservation Road," and "The Curious Case of Benjamin Button." The Georgia-born actress had a star-making turn last year in Sofia Coppola's "Somewhere," and she will be seen in Francis Ford Coppola's upcoming "Twixt Now and Sunrise," and Cameron Crowe's "We Bought a Zoo" (due in December), opposite Matt Damon and Scarlett Johansson. But the one star she'd love to act with happened to grow up in the same house. ''I really want to work with my sister,'' she says. ''I think just now people are starting to realize that I'm acting too.''

Joel Courtney

• Age: 15
• Hometown: Moscow, Idaho
• Character: Joe Lamb, makeup, sound, and special effects

Like Henry Thomas, who played Elliott in "E.T.," Joel Courtney was an unknown before being cast as the lead in a Spielberg film. He didn't have a single acting credit when he went to L.A. last June to visit his brother and possibly land some auditions. ''I really wanted a commercial and $100, and I got 'Super 8,' '' he says. For now, he and his family are keeping small-town life and Hollywood separate. ''We've decided to leave my acting career out of Moscow. Home is home, and if we want to do acting stuff, we can go to L.A.''

Ryan Lee

• Age: 14
• Hometown: Austin
• Character: Cary, the cameraman and lead zombie

After over 50 short films and a handful of guest spots on TV (including one on costar Kyle Chandler's "Friday Night Lights" in 2006), Lee finally scored his first major motion picture with "Super 8." It was all very top secret. Lee and the rest of the actors (and their families) were asked to sign confidentiality agreements after the first audition. ''I didn't tell my grandma until two months in,'' says Lee. ''She would call and I'd be like, 'Yep, just chillin' in Austin.'''

Gabriel Basso

• Age: 16
• Hometown: St. Louis
• Character: Martin, the leading man

Basso's credits include "iCarly," a few indie films, and a regular spot alongside Laura Linney on "The Big C," but his premier vomiting skills are what landed him the role of soft-stomached Martin. They were looking for a guy with that ''perfect liquid-solid combination,'' Basso jokes. He was also famous on set for giving golf-cart joyrides.

Zach Mills

• Age: 15
• Hometown: Nashville, TN
• Character: Preston, actor and lighting supervisor

Mills is no stranger to elaborate movie sets ("Mr. Magorium's Wonder Emporium," "Changeling," "Hollywoodland"), but "Super 8" was by far the most immersive. ''It really felt just like a summer camp,'' he says. He especially enjoyed making the zombie film-within-the-film, which rolls during the final credits. ''J.J. let us write a lot of the scenes that we were in. It felt like we actually made that movie.''

Riley Griffiths

• Age: 14
• Hometown: Seattle
• Character: Charles, the obsessive director

An actor since the first grade, Griffiths has an affinity for Shakespeare and prank-pulling, and he got director J.J. Abrams good on April Fools' Day. ''On the verge of crying, I told him I had my script, lost it at a mall in L.A., somebody took it, and it's online. He totally fell for it,'' Griffiths says. ''I think I might have been more scared than J.J. I was trembling.'' ( cnn.com)

Young actors play wide-eyed filmmakers in "Super 8."

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