Dakota Fanning - Generic Interview

WAR OF THE WORLDS

Dakota Fanning - Generic Interview

Whilst chatting to Dakota Fanning, it's sometimes possible to forget that she is just 11 years old.

After all, an incredible CV which includes TV commercials, television, her award winning film debut alongside Sean Penn in I Am Sam, starring with Rees Witherspoon in Sweet Home Alabama and Denzel Washington in Man on Fire and now playing Tom Cruise's daughter in the much anticipated summer blockbuster from Steven Spielberg, War of the Worlds, would be a justifiable source of pride for an actress three times her age.

But Dakota Fanning is just 11 years old and she's not about to forget that. “I love to ride horses and read books,” she says if you should ask what are the fun things in her life. “I learned how to play the piano for Man On Fire so I continued with that. I'm just like any other kid, really, But I love to do movies.”

She certainly does and she happens to be very good at acting in them, too. This remarkable young actress has won lavish praise from her vastly more experienced co-stars and directors alike. All agree, Miss Fanning is a special talent.

Dakota first started acting five years ago at the age of six when she made appearances on such acclaimed programmes as ER, The Practice and the sitcom Malcolm In The Middle. Mention the latter and she bursts into giggles at the memory.

“I did one episode of Malcolm in the Middle and I was biting Rees, Malcolm's older brother,” she laughs. “I bit his leg and his arm and I really bit him. He wanted me to really bite him, so I did! It was fun.,.”

Dakota, and her younger sister, Elle, were born in Conyers, Georgia, and it was her mother, Joy, who first took her along to a drama playgroup as a fun extra school activity.

What happened next? “You know when I was little I would dress up and pretend to be different things and my Mom saw that and she took me to this playhouse where you study for a play and do the play at the end of the week,” she explains.

“And then the head of the playhouse said to my Mom that we should go to an agency. And then the head of that agency said to my Mom that she should take me to California. So my Mom and I went and I got some commercials and I got some TV shows and it all kind of led to I Am Sam and we've never left!”

Home is now in California with dad Steve, a former baseball player, mum Joy and Elle, 7, who has followed in big sister's footsteps and starred in The Door in the Floor with Kim Basinger and Jeff Bridges, Daddy Day Care with Eddie Murphy and has even played a younger version of Dakota in Taken, the Spielberg executive produced mini series, and I Am Sam.

“But we have not done any scenes together yet,” says Dakota. “And that would be really cool.”

At the start of her professional career, Dakota notched up several TV commercials - she vividly remembers one for Tide, the detergent - and had a small role in the film Tomcats in 2001 but she considers her part as Lucy in I Am Sam, later that same year, to be true debut on the big screen.

She became the youngest actor ever nominated for a Screen Actor's Guild Award, for I Am Sam, and won the Broadcast Film Critics' Association award for Best Young Actor for her stunning performance.,

Dakota has since worked with Denzel Washington in Man On Fire, Robert De Niro in the thriller Hide and Seek and starred in the yet to be released Dreamer, with Kurt Russell, for DreamWorks. She is currently in the final stages of production on Charlotte's Web in Australia.

In War of the Worlds, she plays Rachel Ferrier whose parents, Ray, played by Tom Cruise, and Mary Ann (Miranda Otto) are separated. Rachel and her brother, Robbie (Justin Chatwin), go to stay with their father for the weekend when Mom plans a rare trip away.

“Rachel doesn't have a very good relationship with her father, she is not with him very much she is mostly with her Mom,” says Dakota. “And her Mom has left the kids with her father while she goes on a trip and then the attack happens.

“So it's the worst time for it to happen because she is not with her Mom who she feels the safest with. But she is with her older brother, who is played by Justin, who is a comfort to her. And you know, the objective is to stay alive and get back to their Mom.”

Steven Spielberg's War of the Worlds, which is based on the H G Wells classic story, is one of the most eagerly awaited films of the year. Featuring stunning special effects, an edge of the seat rollercoaster where the existence of mankind is under threat from aliens with vastly superior technology, it features a brilliant cast led by the most acclaiming filmmaker working today.

This telephone interview with Dakota was conducted in early May whilst she was still in Australia filming.

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