At 16, Germany’s Helena Zengel rates as an acting veteran who leads the way with Friday’s theatrical family fantasy film “The Legend of Ochi.”

Berlin born and raised, Zengel is known in America for her remarkable work as a Kiowa speaking orphan opposite Tom Hanks in the 2020 Western “News of the World.”

“Ochi,” which costars Willem Dafoe and Finn Wolfhard (“Stranger Things”), finds Zengel’s Yuri on a farm in a remote village in Carpathia where live the elusive animal species, Ochi. When Yuri finds a wounded baby Ochi, her quest is to bring him home.

“I’ve been to Transylvania before for film festivals,” Zengel recalled in flawless English during a Zoom interview. “I love shooting on location and had a super great time.

“People think the Ochi was a lot of pretend, that they were added later and it was all AI. But they were puppets. The baby Ochi looks like a stuffed animal, except there’s electricity inside.

“So his eyes would move, he would blink, his mouth and even his ears moved. And then he has his tears. Six people would move him around.”

What must it be like when you’re five, as Zengel was, and beginning a career? When does it change from fun to recognizing that it’s a job with serious responsibilities?

“I don’t know if it was one moment. I would say it’s a process,” she said. “Because obviously, when you’re five or six, I just had fun on set, running around and all the people treat me like a princess.

“I was probably seven when I realized people started to recognize me and I earn money with people seeing me on the internet. That’s something super exciting.

“But you also realize, ‘Okay, this is not a joke. It’s for real. People do this as a job.’ I did a movie in Greece and I remember saying to my mother, ‘I like this job that people do.’

“That shooting was where I started to realize, ‘I don’t have to go to an office the rest of my life. I don’t have to necessarily study. I could also do this.’

“It’s true, there was never really a moment where I thought, ‘I don’t want to do this anymore.’ Because it’s what I love. Traveling and meeting new people? It’s not a job for me. I don’t wake up and I think, ‘Oh, I’m going to work.’

“No, I get picked up, and I pretend to be someone else, and I go home. I have a great time.

“So until this day, I wouldn’t call it work. I feel like it was almost an unconscious thing: I knew this was the thing I was going to do.”

“The Legend of Ochi” is in theaters Friday.