Selbyville 12-year-old Zoe Ziegler stars in A24's feature film, 'Janet Planet'

Zoe Ziegler, the 12-year-old Selbyville girl starring alongside Julianne Nicholson in A24's "Janet Planet," is an introvert.

She's the opposite of chatty, and that might be part of what makes her a good actress. She uses her expressive young face to convey her thoughts, and instead of talking, she listens and observes the behaviors of everyone around her –human and animal. She's been riding horses since she was 3, and just about the only way to get her talking is to ask her about her horse, Celine.

Ziegler has never taken acting lessons or even done community theater. "Janet Planet" was her first acting experience, she said. Her mother, Carla Mansour, owns a private hybrid school, and it was the mother of another student actress who suggested Ziegler audition for "Janet Planet."

"She said there was a role for a pretty big film that they were having a hard time finding the right actress for and she thought Zoe would be perfect," Mansour said.

Ziegler wanted to give it a try, so she self-taped an audition. She then met with "Janet Planet" director Annie Baker and Nicholson and was offered the role of "Lacy," Mansour said.

"We basically found out she's a natural," Mansour said.

"Janet Planet" tells the story of 11-year-old Lacy in summer 1991, as she experiences her mother's relationships with three people in rural Massachusetts. As the A24 website describes it, the film captures "the ineffability of a daughter falling out of love with her mother."

A24 is the independent film company behind such award-winning movies as "Everything Everywhere All At Once," "Uncut Gems," "Midsommar" and "Moonlight."

Ziegler filmed "Janet Planet" in Amherst, Massachusetts, over two months in 2022. Mansour was stunned by her daughter's talent for memorizing lines, but she thought maybe the reason she portrayed the character so well was because Ziegler and Lacy are so similar.

But when Ziegler shot "Howl" earlier this summer, she surprised her mother again.

"Then I said, 'Nevermind. She's just got it,'" Mansour said.

From first-time director Sara Crow, "Howl" is "a short film about youth, climate anxiety, New Jersey, and wolves," its Kickstarter page says.

Ziegler will shoot another short film in August and has auditioned for numerous other roles, including a Peacock series, Mansour said. This month, she signed with Gersh talent agency, Mansour said, which Backstage magazine named one of the top nine acting agencies in Los Angeles. Gersh represents such actresses as Winona Ryder and Elizabeth Olsen, according to Backstage.

Producers have told Mansour not to send her daughter to acting school because it could "ruin what she has naturally," she said.

"They say she's just very empathetic and able to get into the mind of a character," Mansour said.

Ziegler, who's already decided she wants to act as a career, worked closely with the directors on both films and said they were "awesome." Despite her introversion, she forms close bonds with people she connects with, her mother said, as well as animals.

In addition to Celine, Ziegler has seven chihuahuas at home. Most of them are siblings she helped birth.

What kind of movie is she hoping to act in in the future? "A horse movie," she said.

Watch for "Janet Planet" on streaming platforms in the coming weeks.

Shannon Marvel McNaught reports on southern Delaware and beyond. Reach her at smcnaught@gannett.com or on Twitter @MarvelMcNaught.