"Alice in Wonderland" star Mia Wasikowska, 20, may not like the trappings of Hollywood fame. But, the smart, eloquent Aussie ingénue is learning to live with it after landing the lead in one of 2010's most anticipated films.

"When I heard that I got the part, and after quite a lengthy process, I let out a procession of words that I will never repeat," Wasikowska laughs.

"It's a huge responsibility to play Alice. She's such an iconic character and so daunting. But, I really wanted it," Wasikowska told CTV.ca during a promo stop in Toronto.

Burton envisioned this funhouse as an extension of the Lewis Carroll's 1865 novel, "Alice's Adventures in Wonderland," and its 1872 sequel, "Through the Looking Glass."

Starring Johnny Depp as the Mad Hatter, Burton cast a wide net to find his perfect Alice.

"We wanted somebody who had…an internal life," Burton has said. An actress whose eyes flashed thoughts and feelings with such quick-silver nuance that no one could mistake that deep inside wheels were turning.

Wasikowska was the answer to Burton's prayers.

Best-known for her critically-acclaimed portrayal of a suicidal teen on the HBO series, "In Treatment," Wasikowska's big, soulful eyes and startling honesty sold Burton.

The same is true for director Edward Zwick, who cast Wasikowska in her first big American movie, "Defiance." Ditto for Cary Fukunaga, who will direct Wasikowska as the inward, deep-feeling leading lady in "Jane Eyre."

"I don't know why I am the way I am on screen. I don't think about. I just feel," says Wasikowska, the daughter of a Polish photographer and Australian painter and collagist.

That capacity is the magical X-factor for a character like Alice.

She stumbles into a strange world. She can't make heads or tail of it. Yet, somehow Alice feels she has to change or suffer the consequences.

"Alice has to get stronger in spite of everything around her to go on," says Wasikowska, a former ballet dancer. "That's what makes her more powerful in this film version. That's why I wanted to play her."

Depp and Wasikowska make a connection

The film opens as 19-year-old Alice attends a party at a Victorian estate shortly after the death of her father.

The young woman spots a white rabbit wearing a waistcoat and pocket watch and chases after it.

The hunt eventually sends Alice tumbling down a rabbit hole and into a world she visited 10 years earlier but can no longer remember.

One by one the legendary inhabitants of Wonderland reconnect with the grown-up girl. Along the way they inform Alice that she alone can slay the Jabberwocky, the terrible dragon who terrorizes the land at the whim of the Red Queen (Helena Bonham Carter).

"This movie is more than just one crazy character after another parading in front of this girl. Tim wanted some real heart here," says Wasikowska.

That, she says, is clearly what makes Depp's portrayal of the Mad Hatter so memorable.

"Johnny gives his characters such core humanity," says Wasikowska.

"You care for Hatter. He's not just some flake. But, that's Johnny," she says. "Once he makes a call on how he's going to play it you can't take anything away from him. He's that confident. He's that good."