Becky Lee Meza looked like an old pro as she smiled for the cameras.
The 10-year-old from Harlingen, Texas, beat out thousands of girls for the chance to portray the young Selena in an upcoming movie about the murdered Tejano singer."I just went for the fun of it, and, well, this is where it brought me," Meza said at a press conference in Los Angeles. She admitted to having no professional acting experience. "I'm excited. I'm nervous. I just want to do a good job."
Jennifer Lopez is set to play Selena as an adult in the movie, which was written and directed by Gregory Nava ("My Family-Mi Familia"). Lopez is a former Fly Girl on the television show "In Living Color" whose acting credits include "My Family" and "The Money Train."
"It's a big thing for the Latino community," Lopez said. "The only thing I want to do is do a good job and make everybody proud and give Selena her justice."
Of the more than 20,000 young women and girls who turned out for open casting calls in Miami, San Antonio, Chicago and Los Angeles in March, about 550 were asked back for further testing, said producer Moctesuma Esparza. The field was then narrowed to seven young women - five of whom were professional actresses - and six little girls.
Both Lopez and Meza were asked to perform three dramatic scenes and dance and lip-sync to Selena songs.
Filming is set to start in San Antonio in late August.
Selena was fatally shot in March 1995 by the onetime president of her fan club. Yolanda Saldivar was convicted of murder and sentenced to life in prison.