Nominated actress for Screen Actors Guild Awards Dakota Fanning After starring in movies for more than 20 years, it’s easy to forget that she is only 30 years old. During those years, her career had incredible breadth, ranging from Steven Spielberg– Director of blockbusters (world war) to animation (Coraline)arrive twilight Film Series, Tarantino Films (once upon a time in hollywood) and Netflix hits, The perfect couple. The fact that Fanning has amassed all this experience at such a young age puts him in a rare class. Speaking about her career at IndieWire, Fanning reflects on being labeled a “child star,” showing up on a film set with nothing else in mind, and what she learned from directing short films (something she doubts she’ll do again).
Although she initially caused a stir with her role I’m Sam At seven years old (becoming the youngest nominee in Screen Actors Guild history), Fanning said she didn’t like the term “child star.” “I always hated ‘child actors,'” she said. “I was like, ‘I can’t work that many hours just because I’m little, but I’m doing the same thing as other actors.’ “I’ve also been lucky enough to work with people who see me as more than just “bringing kids in.” […] I was treated with kindness, respect and care. I am a young person doing a job that not all young people do.
Fanning noted that while she was sometimes challenged by the performance, she found strong comfort in it. “It can be difficult, it can be frustrating,” she explained. [but] When I work, I achieve a state of calm and flow that I can’t achieve anywhere else. This is a place where even something as simple as holding a cell phone all the time, people are calling, texting, people are asking, ‘Where are you? What are you doing? Can you do it? Can you do it? When I work, everything disappears. I don’t bring my phone to the set. I don’t care if people know where I am. If they do need to contact me, they know who to call and I don’t have to worry. I feel like it’s a freedom that I’ve never really felt anywhere else in my life.
In 2018, Fanning directed a short film called Hello Apartment, which she found to be an insightful project as an actor, although she initially doubted she would find working behind the scenes appealing. She shared: “I was nervous because I wouldn’t be that into post-production. It’s something you’re not actually involved in as an actor. [and] I absolutely love this process. This was one of the biggest surprises of the whole experience. I think that also gave me the insight, which I’ve carried with me since I was an actor, about what you can create in the editing room. I knew this before, but seeing it happen in real time…sometimes on set you’re like, ‘Oh my gosh, this isn’t right. That’s wrong. Oh no, how are they going to fix this? Then you see the world of possibilities that happen later. As an actor, that gives me a little bit of peace: everything isn’t always perfect.
