Mia Wasikowska in United States

At the age of seventeen, Mia Wasikowska received her first break in the United States when she was cast as Sophie, a suicidal gymnast, in HBO's acclaimed weekly drama In Treatment, after she auditioned for the role by videotape. The part required her to leave school in Canberra and move to Los Angeles for three months, while enrolling in correspondence courses. She earned critical acclaim for her performance as the troubled teenager treated by psychotherapist Paul Weston (Gabriel Byrne), which included praise for her excellent American accent. Mia Wasikowska revealed in an October 2008 interview with Variety that she was something of a mimic as a child and that the large influx of American films and TV shows made it easier for Australians to pick up the accent.

Mia Wasikowska

In July 2008, after a lengthy search, Mia Wasikowska was cast as the eponymous heroine in Tim Burton's retelling of Alice in Wonderland, alongside Johnny Depp, Helena Bonham Carter and Anne Hathaway. She sent a videotaped audition to casting directors in London, and her first live reading in Los Angeles occurred on the same day as her Evening Sun audition. After three more auditions in London – which saw her flying back and forth from Australia to England in just as many weeks – she was awarded the role. Burton cited Mia Wasikowska's "old-soul quality" as a catalyst in casting her: "Because you’re witnessing this whole thing through her eyes, it needed somebody who can subtly portray that.” Mia Wasikowska portrayed a nineteen-year-old Alice returning to Wonderland for the first time since her youth after escaping an unwanted marriage proposal. Her affinity for the character played a part in her desire for the role, as she had read the Lewis Carroll books as a child and was a fan of Jan Švankmajer's 1988 stop-motion film Alice. She also saw Burton's version of the classic story as a chance to explore a deeper characterization of Alice, to whom she felt young women her age could relate, for which she drew on personal experiences. “Alice has a certain discomfort within herself, within society and among her peers; I have definitely felt similarly about all of those things, so I could really understand her not fitting in. Alice also is an observer who is thinking a lot, and that's similar to how I am.”

For Lisa Cholodenko's indie comedy The Kids Are All Right, Mia Wasikowska was cast as Joni, the bookish daughter of a lesbian couple (Annette Bening and Julianne Moore) who was conceived via artificial insemination. At her younger brother's (Josh Hutcherson) request, she seeks out their biological father (Mark Ruffalo). During shooting, she successfully campaigned to have Joni wear pajamas in several home scenes, as a nod to what the actress regularly did herself while home in Australia. She explained to Orlando Sentinel film critic Roger Moore, "Joni's very comfortable in her place, with who she is. So I pushed to have her, whenever she was at home, in her pajamas. That’s comfortable! And that’s something I do."

On 25 October, Mia Wasikowska was honored with the Hollywood Awards' Breakthrough Actress Award, which was presented to her by Bryce Dallas Howard, and she won the Australian Film Institute International Award for Best Actress on 12 December for her performance in Alice in Wonderland. She was recognized by Forbes as one of the highest-grossing actors of 2010 with $1.03 billion, tied for second position with Johnny Depp and behind leader Leonardo DiCaprio, whose films grossed $1.1 billion for the year.

Mia Wasikowska

From March to May 2010, Mia Wasikowska filmed Cary Fukunaga's adaptation of Jane Eyre, in which she starred as the title character opposite Michael Fassbender as Mr. Rochester. She began reading the novel after completion of Alice in Wonderland, during which she asked her agent if a script existed. Two months later, she received a script and was asked to meet with Fukunaga. However, since Fukunaga was unfamiliar with her prior work at the time and was therefore undecided about casting her, he later sought the opinion of director Gus Van Sant, with whom Mia Wasikowska had previously filmed the 2011 release Restless. He said to BlackBook magazine in February 2011, "Gus wrote back: ‘Cast her.’ " Her work on the film resulted in a scheduling conflict that forced her to withdraw from the lead in Julia Leigh's 2011 Australian independent film Sleeping Beauty, and she was replaced by Emily Browning. Meryl Streep in her 2012 Golden Globe acceptance speech, announced: "How about Mia Wasikowska in Jane Eyre?"

Mia Wasikowska turned down a part in Robert Redford's 2011 film The Conspirator in order to play the female lead in Restless, which she filmed from November to December 2009. The portrayal of her character, a terminally ill sixteen-year-old, required her to crop her long hair. Though she was one of many names shortlisted for the role of Lisbeth Salander in David Fincher's 2011 adaptation of The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo, she declined to audition for the part due to the time commitment involved with the production. From December 2010 to February 2011, Mia Wasikowska filmed Rodrigo Garcia's Albert Nobbs, for which she was a last-minute replacement for Amanda Seyfried.

On 21 April 2011, Mia Wasikowska was named to the Time 100, a listing of the world's most influential people, which featured a brief essay written by Albert Nobbs costar Glenn Close. In June 2011, Mia Wasikowska was invited to join the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences. In December 2011, she appeared in The New York Times' short film on cinematic villainy, Touch of Evil.

In 2011, Mia Wasikowska shot a supporting role in John Hillcoat's Prohibition-era drama The Wettest County as the love interest of star Shia LaBeouf; production wrapped in April 2011. Later in the year, she filmed the lead in Park Chan-wook's English-language debut, Stoker, from 31 August to 23 October. Both films are scheduled for release in 2012. Along with Tilda Swinton, Tom Hiddleston and John Hurt, she will star in Jim Jarmusch's vampire drama Only Lovers Left Alive, which will begin production in Germany in 2012. She has also joined the cast of Richard Ayoade's The Double, due to shoot in the U.K. in spring or summer 2012.

Mia Wasikowska appears in Miu Miu's spring 2012 fashion campaign. In 2012, she made her second appearance in a Vanity Fair Hollywood Issue, this time on the front panel.