MEDIA > ARTICLES & INTERVIEWS > 2005

THEY'RE WILD ABOUT DAKOTA
from Kentucky, October 16, 2005
by Rich Copley
TORONTO - She got a golden palomino because the color matched her hair.
When she was talking to her friend about cool names for horse farms, she came up with "Pink Paradise," because pink is her favorite color.
And this summer, Entertainment Weekly magazine declared her "the most powerful actress in Hollywood."
Sitting next to you, she looks as if a strong breeze could blow her away, but that isn't because she's one of those starlets who desperately needs to eat.
Dakota Fanning is 11.
But in her decade plus one, the girl has built a rŽsumŽ most actresses of any age would envy. Her co-stars have included Tom Cruise, Robert De Niro, Denzel Washington and Sean Penn, to name a few. Her movies have been modest to major hits.
"She has a complexity and a gift no other actor on the planet has, especially one who is young," says director John Gatins, who just directed Fanning in her latest movie, Dreamer: Inspired by a True Story, which opens Friday.
Set entirely and filmed partially in Lexington and Versailles, Dreamer is a quintessential "little girl and a horse" movie. In it, she plays Cale Crane, the daughter of a horse trainer (Kurt Russell). Together, they rehabilitate an injured thoroughbred for a shot at the Breeders' Cup.
The character of Cale was originally written to be a boy, but when Gatins saw Fanning's 2004 film Man on Fire , he thought, "I have to get Dakota Fanning."
Fanning isn't easy to get for your movie these days, as she's the first choice for almost any director looking for a preteen girl.
"The great thing about Dakota is she's very discerning and takes her time to decide what she really wants to do," Gatins said during interviews at the Toronto International Film Festival last month. "She doesn't just jump onto a project because it's got a big budget or this person is in it. She really wants to read the material and understand the film that we're trying to make."
Fanning was attracted to Dreamer because "I never worked with horses before, so that was a new challenge, and working with Kurt was just amazing. I couldn't wait."
Once she took on the part, Gatins was impressed by her full immersion into the subject. The day after she accepted the role, he says, she was on the farm learning to groom a horse. She then learned to ride, studied the history of horse racing and got that golden palomino, a gift from Russell.
Her co-stars in Dreamer were impressed by her talent and work ethic.
"There are people that are worth your time" to work with, says Elizabeth Shue, the Leaving Las Vegas star who also worked with Fanning in this year's Hide & Seek. "When I knew I was going to get to work with Dakota Fanning again, and how extraordinarily special she is, ... I signed on."
Kris Kristofferson, who plays Cale's grandfather, says, "Working with Dakota's not exactly like working with a kid. She's a remarkable actor. ... Bette Davis was probably like that when she was a little girl, and I think she'll amaze us for years."
Fanning has yet to get top billing in a film, but with all due respect to Russell, Dreamer is her movie. It's also one of the few movies most of her peers can see. Indeed, Fanning has built her reputation in some intense, grown-up fare, such as the revenge-themed Man on Fire with Washington ; Hide & Seek, a chiller with De Niro and Shue; and this summer's War of the Worlds, in which she and Cruise flee vicious aliens. But when Fanning joined the Girl Scouts last month, she was able to treat her fellow troops to a screening of the PG-rated Dreamer.
"She's incredibly professional when she's working, and when she's not, she's a 10-year-old girl," Gatins says of the actress, who turned 11 since making Dreamer last fall in Lexington and New Orleans.
She's a girl who loves horses, and now knows where the horse capital of the world is.
"When you're there, everything is horses, horses, horses, horses," Fanning says of filming in Lexington last year. "It was a great place to learn and film, and we filmed at Keeneland, which was so incredible."
Fanning was filming during the 2004 horse sales and says she got to watch some auctions, "but I was careful not to move my hands," lest she inadvertently bid on a million-dollar thoroughbred. "I'd think, 'I have an itch on my head, but I'm not going to scratch it.'"
Asked what she wants to do when she grows up, Fanning says, "I feel like I already have," adding that though she's developed many interests, acting is her true love.
"I'm not worried about Dakota at all," Kristofferson says. "She has a real family, a real loving family. That probably has a lot to do with who she is now. That's probably why she's so grounded."
As a little girl, she might be best able to explain the appeal of her new movie.
"I think every little girl wants a pony," Fanning says. "So, it's exciting. For me, if I didn't have a horse, I'd want to go and see another little girl who had a horse."

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