`I wanted a silver dress for the movie premiere. That's what they all wear to these things." Words you could imagine falling from the lips of Michelle Pfeiffer or Sandra Bullock, but hardly from a 13-year-old Dublin girl with freckles and traintrack bands on her teeth. "I didn't get these bands until after I was in the film," she points out, and is horrified to think that her freckles might be visible on screen (they are, charmingly).

This is Jane Valentine, from Ranelagh, who appears, in her debut film role, as the young Joan of Arc in Luc Besson's movie, which opens in Ireland this Friday.

The film, which is in English, opened in Paris last October, and it was at this premiere that Jane wore her silver ensemble, courtesy of the Design Yard's Ciaran Sheehy and Elaine Cassidy. She flashes some of the photos from the night, including one of Faye Dunaway ("she's nice"), who also appears in Joan of Arc.

The adult Joan is played by Milla Jovovich, who is also the lead in the Bono/ Wim Wenders's movie The Million Dollar Hotel. Jane didn't spend much time with Milla, because their scenes were shot separately. But she did meet John Malkovich: "I was like, oh my God, so chuffed to see him. He's really down to earth." In the movie Malkovich wears a wig: "Yeah, I know, in real life he's bald. He has to wear this funnylooking hairstyle in the film. I had hair extensions myself. The wax glue stuff they use sticks in your hair; it's really annoying."

Joan of Arc opens with the young Joan in the confessional, admitting to the priest that she gave a pair of her father's shoes to a monk. Her face is radiant with innocence and her voice has gentle, unobtrusive Irish inflections (far preferable to the mock French accents of some of the cast, and the in-your-face twang of Malkovich).

This is followed by idyllic scenes of Joan running through fields of poppies and lavender, and through muddy streams. "That was filmed in Normandy in the summer of 1998. I was 11," recalls Jane. "It was a bit like Ireland, all green and raining. We spent a lot of time waiting for the sun to come out."

There were compensations: "I had my own caravan with my name on it. It was really cool. They used to put flowers and food in it for me." Part of the six weeks she spent filming was spent in Besson's house in the south of France: "I got to know his daughter, Juliette, and his niece, Lucy. We still write to each other and I might go and see Lucy in the summer."

One of her scenes involves an encounter with a pack of wolves in the forest. "They thought I might be afraid of the wolves. One of them bit the trainer. But I thought they were really cute." She shows me a picture of a wolf cub. "I named him Cuchulainn. No one could pronounce it."

Another scene involves the burning and sacking of Joan's village by the English: "They built a village, especially for burning, and they were very nervous, because they only had so much time to film everything once the fires began. I was under a lot of pressure to do things again and again. I didn't have to go near the fire but I got scared of the galloping horses. The extras were frightened: one girl went to hospital for shock. Some of the crew had to dress up in costume and replace the extras, who got too scared."

The young Joan, hidden in a cupboard, witnesses the horrific rape and murder of her older sister by an English soldier. How did Jane feel about this unpalatable aspect of the film? "I didn't actually see that scene of the rape and the killing, because it was filmed separately, until much later when the movie had been made. It was gross. But I was so in awe of seeing myself on screen, I didn't pay attention to all the violence."

Jane started doing drama at her national school, Sandford, when she was six. She won a prize for her recital of a poem at a feis. There followed regular feiseanna appearances and more prizes. When she was eight she started attending classes with Jill Doyle at her drama school, the National Performing Arts School on Barrow Street (where she has received awards of excellence in her drama exams). There is acting in the blood: her great aunt, Angela Newman, was an acclaimed Abbey actress, and her second cousin, Glen Quinn (based in Hollywood), appeared on Roseanne, and is to be seen in the sitcom, Angel.

Jane's first role was as an extra in The Ambassador. Then she got an audition for the part of young Joan: "Jill Doyle said the auditions were on in the Gaiety and that I was too old." Young Joan is supposed to be eight. "When I arrived it was full of girls with blonde hair and blue eyes. They wanted fair skin and hair." She improvised a scene with three other girls: "I didn't feel nervous. It seemed easy, just doing what we did in drama class."

Incredibly, the right girl had not been found after extensive searches in France and Britain: "They did 3,000 girls in Ireland," recalls Jane. A week later Jane discovered she had made it into a shortlist of three girls. She went to the Gaiety, where she was filmed performing the opening confessional sequence of the film. Shortly after this she was called to London and performed the sequence for Luc Besson. "It was amazing. My dad came with me to Pinewood Studios. I was excited rather than nervous. Then Luc said, `you've got it, you are Joan of Arc'."

She did not receive the rest of the script until filming began, four weeks later: "Luckily I'm quick at learning." She had never heard of Joan of Arc: "I asked my parents about her and they said she went into battle and was burned at the stake."

Jane is determined to continue acting: "It was the best experience of my life. I'd like to do more films. I'm in an agency, but there aren't a lot of parts for 13-year-olds." She is now a student at Muckross College, and her classmates are looking forward to going to the film with her: "My friends are so excited. Every day they ask me more questions." What would she like to do after school? Her young flushed face goes wistful: "What I want is every girl's dream. To go to Hollywood and be a famous actress."