'Blue Valentine's' Faith Wladyka is Malverne's biggest little star

She's barely four feet tall, but 6-year-old Faith Wladyka is already a big star.

The Malverne girl made her debut on the big screen earlier this year alongside Ryan Goslin and Michelle Williams in "Blue Valentine," a film that premiered at the Sundance Film Festival in January.

Faith, who attends kindergarten at Our Lady of Lourdes School in Malverne, played Frankie Periera, the daughter of a couple whose marriage is disintegrating. Her role in the sad romantic drama, written and directed by Derek Cianfrance, is one of cheer and brightness, which very much reflects Faith's personality – which is what landed her the role in the first place.

"I wanted to find someone that was not necessarily a child actor, but ... just a person with the right spirit," Cianfrance told the Herald during a recent interview. "Faith just had this internal world and this imagination ... she was a magical little person."

It seems Faith has had that enchanting effect since infancy, landing commercial work as a print ad model for various companies, including Johnson & Johnson. But it's not just Faith's ear-to-ear smile that's appealing, it's her openness.

"She's fully herself," Cianfrance said. "Everything about her, from the way she talks, to the way she tells stories, to the way she listens, to her attentiveness and openness to people. She doesn't have fear."

Faith's mother, Dawn Wladyka, elaborated on that, noting that Faith was never one of those children who would run and hide when guests came over. But Faith, who turned 6 on March 2, ran plenty during filming on the set, sometimes behaving so much like a little kid that her mother worried she was being unprofessional. "But I guess what they wanted was for her to just be herself," Wladyka said. "They said to me, the best thing she could do is just be Faith."