Dakota seems to be casually promoting her latest short film, Zygote, while filming The Alienist in Budapest, Hungary. Following her interview with Collider, a new one was released by Refinery29, in which she talks about the short and what it feels like to play an action hero. Read it below.

Dakota Fanning first won our hearts in 2001, when, as a 7-year-old actress, she starred alongside Sean Penn in I Am Sam. Sixteen years have passed since then, and the 23-year-old has blossomed into one of Hollywood’s most sought after talents, appearing in over 20 films. She’s played Cherry Currie (The Runaways), a vampire queen (The Twilight Saga), and a 1960s radical (American Pastoral), and you can soon catch her acting alongside Rihanna, Anne Hathaway, Cate Blanchett, Mindy Kaling, and Sarah Paulson in the upcoming Ocean’s Eight. She’ll also be solving crimes as Sarah Howard, a Gilded Age secretary who is determined to become New York’s first female police detective in TNT’s The Alienist.

But you have never seen her quite like this before.

Fanning stars in Neill Blomkamp’s latest short film, Zygote, about the two lone survivors of an attack by an unknown and terrifying creature in an Arctic mine. Fanning’s character, Barklay, is charged with shepherding her superior to safety — but there’s way more to her than meets the eye. Don’t let its short run-time fool you — 20 minutes is more than enough for you to start fearing for your life.

The film is part of an anthology series launched by Blomkamp’s studio, Oats Studios, which bills itself as a experimental filmmaking “lab.” Each short is released on YouTube, but viewers also have the opportunity to pay $4.99 to download any of the assets involved in the production — from the dailies to the mock-up of the monster — to make projects of their own.

We spoke to Fanning about how working on the short film, learning to fire a gun, and what it was like playing an action hero for the first time.

Refinery29: What drew you to this particular project? How did you come to be involved?

Dakota Fanning: “I did a BMW commercial a few years ago — Neill Blomkamp made one and I was in it with Clive Owen, so I worked with him on that project and gotten to know him a bit, so he asked me if I wanted a part of an experimental short film for his studios, and I did! I loved the idea and the concept, and loved working with Neill, I think he’s so talented. And so getting to be a part of one of his projects was really exciting to me.”

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Dakota gave a phone interview to Collider.com recently, and she talked about getting involved with Neill Blomkamp’s short film Zygote, wanting to work with him, why this character was appealing to her, the physical challenges of this shoot, why she feels like she’s in a good place, creatively, and more. You can read the complete interview below.

From filmmaker Neill Blomkamp and made through the experimental Oats Studios (which is looking to make original short film content that will eventually lead to full-scale feature films and series from the titles they create), the sci-fi short Zygote follows two lone survivors (Dakota Fanning and Jose Pablo Cantillo) who are forced to fight for their lives. Stranded in an Arctic mine, they must evade a horrific and terrifying creature that can anticipate any move they might make.

During this 1-on-1 phone interview with Collider, actress Dakota Fanning talked about how she got involved with this short, wanting to work with Neill Blomkamp, why this character was appealing to her, getting to see the creature come alive, the physical challenges of this shoot, being open to further exploring this character, if they were to make a full-length feature, and why she feels like she’s in a good place, creatively.

Collider: I have to say, I really enjoyed this short, but the creature has stuck with me since I watched it. What did you think of the creature, once you saw the final visuals?

DAKOTA FANNING: I saw images of what it was going to look like, but of course, it was completely computer generated, so when I saw it for the first time, it was so much grosser than I had pictured. It was cool to see it come alive. The noise, the movement and realizing what it’s made of was so gross.

When and how were you approached about this project, and what were you told about what this would be?

FANNING: I worked with Neill Blomkamp on his BMW commercial (The Escape) last summer. We shot for 10 days and got to know each other a bit, and then a few months later, he asked if I would be interested in doing an experimental project – a short film – for his studio and he sent me the script he had for it, at the time. I loved working with him so much and I think he’s so talented, and I thought that this idea was super cool. I was excited to be a part of something I’ve never really done before. This was the kind of character I’d never played. And then, when I got there and saw what everything was going to look like, in the end, I saw how talented the people were who were working on it. With the special effects, I learned a lot and was excited by it. Just from working with him before, he thought of me for this and the timing worked out, so here it is.

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Dakota’s latest short film, Zygote, is out now! It was produced by Oats Studios and directed by Neill Blomkamp, and it opens with two people trapped in a mining facility somewhere in the Arctic Circle. They’re fleeing a horrific creature made of body parts from other members of the station (x). Our gallery has been updated with screen captures from the film, as well as a couple of promotional stills and the poster shared by Dakota and the studio on Instagram.