MEDIA > ARTICLES & INTERVIEWS > 2003

BEYOND HER YEARS
from Ent Today, 2003
by Laurel DiGangi
Two years ago, Dakota Fanning’s performance as the 7-year-old daughter of a mentally challenged man opposite Sean Penn in I Am Sam garnered her a Screen Actors Guild nomination, the youngest actor to date to receive this honor. This weekend, in Uptown Girls, Fanning hits the big screen again as Ray, an overly mature, germ-obsessed neatnik who’s emotionally abandoned by her music executive mom (Heather Locklear) and left in the care of a revolving door of nannies. Ray’s newest is Molly (Brittany Murphy), the spoiled daughter of two famous, deceased rock stars. Molly is a freewheeling New York socialite until her whopping inheritance is stolen by her accountant, forcing her to reluctantly take a real job. Initial animosity between the two eventually turns to friendship when Ray teaches her wild-child nanny how to behave more like a grown-up while Molly teaches her priggish charge how to behave more like a child.
The strong friendship between Fanning and Murphy didn’t have to transcend any personality conflicts. “Yes, she’s 9 years old and she loves childhood and she’s a kindred free spirit,” says Murphy at a recent press junket. “But she has a very old soul, extremely bright. You can talk with her about anything. That’s what makes her such an extraordinarily talented actress, because she’s such an open, caring, giving, aware person.” Fanning sums up her adoration for Murphy succinctly. “She’s like a big sister to me.”
In both Uptown Girls and in I Am Sam, Fanning has more smarts than her adult costars. And in real life, her intelligence shines. Her persona begs the question: Does she generally find herself to be brighter than the grown-ups surrounding her? Fanning giggles and, like a true celebrity savvy to the press, evades the question. “I just have fun doing what I’m doing,” she says, “and I just love meeting people like Brittany and having a good time.” She also enjoys traveling to various locations, creating different characters and doing things she wouldn’t normally do in real life. “Like being bratty to people,” she says, “You never get to do that!”
As Ray, Fanning was thrown an opportunity provided to few kids her age — to play not just a child, but a real, quirky character. To prepare for her role, Fanning focused on wardrobe. “I’d go shopping and I’d say, ‘Ray would buy that. So I’m gonna buy that.’” Then she’d wear the clothes to get in character. “Or I’d put antibacterial soap on my hands,” she says. “Something weird like that.”
According to Fanning, director Boaz Yakin was open to ad-libbing and any ideas she and the cast had. Fanning thought Ray might have plastic slipcovers on her bed, an idea that was tried but didn’t work out. Says Fanning, “One idea I had [that was used in the film] was for Ray to put a towel down on the sink before putting her purse down.”
Fanning admits that she herself is a very neat and organized person — particularly compared to her little sister Elle (who played younger versions of Fanning’s characters in I Am Sam and the Spielberg miniseries Taken). “Her side of the room is a mess. My room is perfect… everything in its basket.”
She’s equally serious about her studies. Her favorite subject in “school” (she has a tutor on set and goes to her tutor’s home when she isn’t working) is history. “Whenever I finish a test, my teacher checks it out in the next room and I run in there and go ‘Are you done yet?’ and five seconds later, ‘Are you done yet?’”
But Fanning plays just as hard as she works, insisting she’s just a regular kid who takes ballet lessons, loves amusement parks and enjoys hanging out with her “three best friends.” “When I come home, I play with my baby dolls and strollers and stuffed animals, pretend like they’re real dogs,” she says, adding, “I really do.” Her favorite toys right now are the Bratz dolls, with the doll-sized Bratz Salon and Spa her most recent, treasured acquisition. “I put shampoo in the Jacuzzi last night and it bubbled up,” she says gleefully.
But that was nothing compared Fanning’s on-set shampoo session, where she and Brittany shot a scene where they gave two twin pigs, Softee and Springer, who shared a role as Mo, a bath. “I loved the pigs,” Fanning says. “They were baby pot-bellied pigs. And they ate bacon!”
Fanning is thrilled to have worked with everyone she’s met in her career. “I would like to be like all the actresses I worked with,” she says. “What I learned from Brittany is that she treats everybody so great.” The two actors she’d most like to work with someday are Cameron Diaz and Julia Roberts. “I met Cameron at the SAG awards and she talked with me for 10 minutes,” she beams. Her favorite singer is every girl’s favorite—the other Britney—although about herself Fanning admits, “I’m actually a pretty bad singer. But I’d like to learn to sing better.”
Whether she’s making directorial suggestions or getting into her character, the 9-year-old Fanning, who’s never had an acting lesson in her life, is a total professional. Says co-star Jesse Spencer, who plays Molly’s musician boyfriend, “I saw her in action at the read-through. She sat down and we all had our scripts open and her script was shut — she knew all her lines.”
Her professionalism carries through in her personal relationships with her colleagues, too. “On the last day of filming, she called everyone and congratulated them,” says Murphy. “She’s very responsible when it comes to letters and thank you notes.” Adds Fanning, “Ever since I could read and write, always for my birthday and Christmas I would send thank you notes, because people don’t have to send you presents.” She even wrote Entertainment Weekly and thanked them for putting her on their “It” list. Given her extraordinary talent, Fanning’s future will assuredly include a hefty case of writer’s cramp.

Back | Home