Ellary Porterfield doesn’t remember the moment she decided she wanted to be an actor – maybe there wasn’t a moment, just a long, slow slide into the realization that she was an actor.

”I never thought about not doing it,” she says.

Her world has always been her stage, and acting her thing.

”Her first words practically were ‘I want to be on Broadway,’” said Traci Porterfield, Ellary’s mother.

Now, Ellary, 16, is poised to realize her dream of seeing herself on the silver screen next to stars Woody Harrelson and Julianne Moore. She plays a starring role in ”The Prize Winner of Defiance, Ohio,” a DreamWorks production about a struggling 1950s family with a strong and innovative mother.

”It’s what I’ve always wanted to do,” says a dreamy Ellary, describing the four months she spent making the film. ”I was just on air.”

The movie opens in limited release (seven major U.S. cities – Bend is not one of them) on Sept. 30.

Ellary plays Tuff Ryan in the film, which is based on a true story. Tuff is the fifth of 10 children in the Ryan family, and the one who goes on to write the book on which the film is based. In the movie, Tuff’s father, played by Woody Harrelson, struggles to keep the family afloat while her mother, played by Julianne Moore, uses her wit and talent to enter popular commercial jingle-writing contests to provide for her family.

Ellary said the experience of shooting the film for four months was an amazing one. The movie filmed in Toronto under the guidance of first-time movie director Jane Anderson. Ellary, born and raised in Bend and a Summit High School junior, was rubbing elbows with the likes of Moore, Harrelson and Laura Dern.

”I kind of fell in love with Woody,” she said. ”And Julianne is very professional – she’s like a machine.”

Ellary said Harrelson, a well-known vegan and hippie, seemed constantly concerned about what the children in the movie were eating on the set. Between takes, she had an on-set teacher to keep her up to date on her classes.

Now back in Bend, Ellary is agonizing over what to wear to the Monday premiere of her film in New York. Perhaps one of her collection of vintage dresses will go with her strawberry-blond hair and sparkling eyes.

Ellary said it was difficult to return from the airy experience of making a movie to the everyday life of a high school junior. She finds herself daydreaming in class, she said, reliving her starlet life.

Not that ”Prize Winner” is Ellary’s first – or likely last – stint in show business.

She got involved with acting at age 12 after an open call for auditions in Bend named her one of the top new talents in a nationwide search. From there, she found a manager and started spending two months a year auditioning for and making television pilots, none of which were picked up by a network. Mom Traci Porterfield was hesitant at first to allow her daughter to be in Los Angeles for two months a year, pursuing a career in a tough business and in a strange city.

”I felt like raising a child in Bend, Oregon is the best thing you can do for a child,” she said. ”L.A. is brutal.”

But dad Walt Porterfield said yes and brought Traci around to his point of view: Ellary was an actor and needed to pursue this dream. Today, Ellary’s parents are supportive of their daughter’s budding career, and Traci travels with Ellary to auditions and sets.

Ellary auditioned for ”Prize Winner” last spring in what she described as a nerve-wracking experience. Many of her competitors had dressed in period clothes (the movie is set in the 1950s and 60s), and had more experience than she.

Nonetheless, she got the role and now hopes she can use her experience in one movie to vault into other roles.

But, Ellary says, she’s careful not to put all of her eggs in one basket. Her father showed her how an IRA (Individual Retirement Account) earns ever-so-much more if started at age 16 than if started at age 30, so part of her salary is undoubtedly well-invested. And, she plans to go to college – Stanford is her top choice – though she won’t study theater. She likes math and English, but doesn’t know what she wants to study in college.

And, she’ll probably never lose her love for small-town life.

”Now I have the best of both worlds,” Ellary said. ”I’ve had this thrilling adventure, but I get to come home to Bend, Oregon.”