Dakota Fanning recently spoke to The Cut about the awkward and oftentimes inappropriate interviews she was put into as a child star. The actor started her professional career at 6 years old and emerged as one of the Hollywood’s biggest child stars with performances in “Man on Fire,” “I Am Sam,” “War of the Worlds” and more.
“In interviews at a young age, I remember journalists asking me, ‘How are you avoiding becoming a tabloid girl?’ People would ask super-inappropriate questions,” Fanning said “I was in an interview as a child and somebody asked, ‘How could you possibly have any friends?’ It’s like, huh?”
“I have a lot of compassion for people who have been made into examples. If society and the media hadn’t played their part, who knows?” Fanning added about child stardom, noting that she was able to largely avoid the toxicity that so many young performs endure. “I don’t think that it’s necessarily connected a hundred percent to being in this business; there are other factors, too. I just didn’t fall into it, and I don’t know the exact reasons except that my family is comprised of very nice, kind, protective people.”
Fanning was recently nominated at the Emmys for her supporting role in Netflix’s “Ripley,” and she last appeared on the streamer’s hit limited series “The Perfect Couple” alongside Nicole Kidman. In her interview with The Cut, Fanning credited her mother for getting her through Hollywood at a young age and teaching her “how to treat other people and also how to treat myself.”
“And she was there every second,” Fanning said. “I was always treated with respect. It was never ‘Bring the kid in! Get her out!’ I wasn’t working with people who treated me that way — I was being respected as an actor and as equal as you can be for that age.”
Fanning was on the big screen over the summer in the Warner Bros. thriller “The Watchers.” Her next film role is in Paramount’s horror movie “Vicious,” set for release in 2025.
From Variety US