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DARLING DREAMER DAKOTA
from Metro News, September 14, 2005
Dakota Fanning — what a punim! She stars In Dreamer: Inspired By A True Story, which debuted at TIFF this week.
Dakota Fanning will tell you that she's just like any other 11-year-old girl.
She enjoys spending time with her friends, playing the piano and making multi-million dollar grossing films with some of Hollywood's top A-list talent.
Perhaps it's in that last part that she diverges from the pre-teen norm.
With acting credits alongside Oscar-winners Steven Spielberg, Charlize Theron, Denzel Washington, Sean Penn and Oscar nominee Tom Cruise, Fanning has built a resume which rivals those of acting colleagues 40 years her senior.
In her latest film, Dreamer: Inspired By A True Story, the Georgia native plays Cale Crane alongside former child star and Hollywood veteran Kurt Russell (Sky High). Russell plays her father and horse trainer Ben Crane who, under pressure from his daughter, decides to rehabilitate a broken horse in the hope of winning a major race and rebuilding his family's defunct farm.
"When you have a relationship like Kurt and I have you can talk about anything and be interested," Fanning says when asked if Russell was able to offer sound advice on growing up in the acting business. "It wasn't so much about the business, but about life."
And life has been good for the pint-sized actress, who says she tends to gravitate towards diverse roles to challenge herself. With Dreamer, Fanning was lured by the opportunity to learn about horses, horse racing and was even given a very special gift by Russell as shooting wrapped — her very own blond palomino which she promptly named Goldie.
"It's the same colour as my hair so we match," she giggles.
It's during exchanges such as this one, when that curtain of maturity and premature worldliness is pulled back, that Fanning proves that she's telling the truth when she claims to be just like any other kid, albeit a famous one.
And like any kid she, too, is a dreamer. One day, she wishes to work with Jodie Foster and Hilary Swank, two more Academy Award winners. But in the meantime, her attention is focused on improving at her craft and using her prized pink brush set to care for Goldie.
"I think my biggest dream is to do the best that I can at acting and learn from all the people I'm working with as best I can while I'm working with them. I think I just want to act forever and that's my biggest dream."
Dreamer: Inspired By A True Story had its world premiere at TIFF this week.

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