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Dakota Fanning Biography
Dakota Fanning born Hannah Dakota Fanning is an American actress and model. She rose to fame at a tender age of seven years for her role as Lucy Dawson in the film I Am Sam (2001), for which she received a Screen Actor Guild Award nominated at eight.
Dakota Fanning Age
Dakota was born on 23 February 1994, Conyers, Georgia, United States. She is 24 years as of 2018.
Dakota Fanning Height
She stands at a height of 5′ 4″
Dakota Fanning Husband
Dakota is dating Henry Frye, they started dating in 2017 and the two couples have made several appearances together. Fanning is said to have been in a relationship with Jamie Strachan between 2013 to 2016. She was also involved with Logan Markley and Tyler James Williams.
Dakota Fanning Parents
Born to Heather Joy (nee Arrington) who was a professional tennis player and her father was, Steven J. Fanning. he played minor league baseball but now works as an electronic salesman in Los Angeles, California.
Dakota Fanning Net Worth
She has an estimated net worth of $16 million.
Dakota Fanning Sister
Dakota is the elder sister of Elle Fanning, also an actress.
Dakota Fanning Career
She was an actress at the Towne Lake Arts Center in Woodstock, Georgia, starring in small plays when Fanning was a little child. She started her professional acting career at the age of five in 1999, appearing in a Tide TV commercial. Her first major acting job was a guest role in the NBC prime-time drama ER, which continues to be one of her favorite roles: I played a victim of a car accident with leukemia. For the two days that I worked, I had to wear a neck brace and nose tubes.
Subsequently, Fanning had several television series guest roles including CSI: Crime Scene Investigation, The Practice, and Spin City. She also portrayed Ally McBeal and The Ellen Show’s title characters as young girls.
In 2001, in the movie I Am Sam, the story of a mentally challenged man who fights for his daughter’s custody (played by Fanning), Fanning was chosen to be a star opposite Sean Penn. Her role in the film made Fanning the youngest person ever to be nominated for a Guild Award for Screen Actors, at the time being seven years old. She also won the Broadcast Film Critics Association’s Best Young Actor / Actress Award for her performance.
In 2002, in the science fiction miniseries Taken, director Steven Spielberg cast Fanning in the lead child role of Allison “Allie” Clarke / Keys. By this time, she had received positive notices from several film critics, including Tom Shales of The Washington Post, who wrote that Fanning “has the perfect kind of otherworldly look about her, an enchanting young actress called… to carry great weight.” In the same year, Fanning appeared in three films: as a kidnap victim who proves to be more than her abductors bargained for in Trap.
She starred in two prominent movies a year later: playing the uptight child to an immature nanny played in Uptown Girls by Brittany Murphy, and as Sally in The Cat in the Hat. Furthermore, during this period, Fanning did voice-over work for four animated projects, including voicing Satsuki in Disney’s English language release of My Neighbor Totoro, a little girl in the Fox series Family Guy, and a young Wonder Woman in the Cartoon Network’s Justice League Unlimited episode of “Kids Stuff.”
She appeared on season ten of the TV series Friends in 2004, playing the role of Mackenzie, a young girl who is moving out of the house buying Monica and Chandler.
In 2004, Fanning appeared in Man on Fire as hired to protect her from kidnappers by Pita, a nine-year-old who wins over the heart of a retired mercenary (Denzel Washington). Roger Ebert wrote that Fanning “is a pro at the age of ten and creates a heart-winning character.” Hide and Seek was her first release in 2005, ahead of Robert De Niro. The film was generally panned, and critic Chuck Wilson called it “a fascinating meeting of equals–if the child star[ Fanning] challenged the master[ De Niro] to a stare-down game, the legend might well blink first.” Fanning voiced Lilo Pelekai (taking over for Daveigh Chase) in the Lilo & Stitch 2 direct-to-video movie: Stitch Has a Glitch.
She also had a small part in the Rodrigo García film Nine Lives (released in October 2005), in which she shared an unbroken nine-minute scene with actress Glenn Close, who had her own praise for Fanning: “She’s definitely an old soul. She’s one of those talented people who come along every now and then.” Fanning also recorded her lead role in Coraline during this time.
Fanning finished filming on Dreamer: inspired at the end of October 2004 by a True Story (opposite to Kurt Russell). Kris Kristofferson, who plays the grandfather of her character in the movie, said she’s reincarnated like Bette Davis. While promoting her role in Dreamer, Fanning became a registered member of the USA’s Girl Scouts at a special ceremony, followed by a film screening for San Fernando Valley Council’s Girl Scouts members.
Then Fanning starred in Worlds War, starring next to Tom Cruise. Both films have been a critical success, released in reverse order (War in June 2005 and Dreamer in the following October). War director Steven Spielberg praised “how fast she understands the situation in a sequence, how quickly she sizes it up, measures it up, and how she would really react in a real situation.” Fanning moved straight to another movie without a break: Charlotte’s Web, which she finished filming in Australia in May 2005, and premiered on December 15, 2006.
Fanning worked on the Hounddog film during the summer of 2006, described in press reports as a “dark story of abuse, violence, and Elvis Presley adulation in rural south.” Fanning’s parents were criticized for allowing her to film a scene where her character is raped. Fanning, however, defended the film by telling Reuters, “It’s not really happening. It’s a film, and it’s called acting.” Although the film was a failure both at the box office and with critics, Roger Ebert praised the performance of Fanning, who compared it to Jodie Foster in Taxi Driver.
She was invited to join the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences at the age of twelve in the same year, becoming the youngest member in the history of the Academy. Later that year, having earned an estimated $4 million in 2006, she was ranked 4th in Forbes ‘ “Top-Earning Stars Aged Under 21” list.
She filmed Fragments–Winged Creatures together with Kate Beckinsale, Guy Pearce, Josh Hutcherson, and Forest Whitaker and Jennifer Hudson, winners of the Academy Award, in the spring of 2007. She plays Anne Hagen, a girl who in the aftermath witnesses the assassination of her father and turns to religion. Fanning appeared in July on a short film entitled Cutlass, one of the “Reel Moments” of Glamour based on readers.
From September to the end of the year, Fanning filmed Push, focusing on a group of telekinetic and clear-sighted young American expatriates hiding from the Hong Kong Division (a U.S. government agency) and band together trying to escape the division’s control. Fanning played a 13-year-old psychic, Cassie Holmes.
Fanning started filming The Secret Life of Bees, a novel by Sue Monk Kidd, in January 2008. Set in South Carolina in 1964, the story centers on Lily Owens (Fanning), who escapes her lonely life and troubled relationship with her father by running away with her caregiver and only friend (played by Jennifer Hudson) to a town in South Carolina where an excentric trio of beekeeping sisters (played by Queen Latifah, Sophie Okonedo, and Alicia Keys) takes them in. Fanning at the June 2010 premiere Eclipse Her films, Coraline horror animation and Push science fiction thriller, were released on the same day, February 6, 2009.
In March 2008, in the film My Sister’s Keeper, respectively, Kate and Anna were cast on the original creation of the film adaptation Dakota and Elle Fanning. When Dakota heard, however, that she would have to shave her head for the role, she dropped out of the movie as Elle did then. The two sisters were replaced; as Anna Fitzgerald, Abigail Breslin took the lead role, and as Kate Fitzgerald, Sofia Vassilieva was cast.
Based on Stephenie Meyer’s novels, Fanning played Jane, a member of the Volturi Guard, in New Moon and took up the role in Eclipse. On November 20, 2009, New Moon was released and the following June, Eclipse was released. On in March 2009, after earning an estimated $14 million, she was ranked number three on Forbes ‘ Most Valuable Young Stars list.
She starred in 2010 with Kristen Stewart, Stella Maeve, and Scout Taylor-Compton in the movie The Runaways, where she played the band’s lead singer Cherie Currie. Then from the end of the year to the beginning of 2011, Fanning filmed Breaking Dawn, taking on Jane’s role.
The voice of Fanning was heard in Rise, a U.S. commissioned documentary film. Figure Skating to mark the 50th anniversary of the Sabena Flight 548 crash that resulted in the loss of the entire American team and subsequent cancelation of the World Figure Skating Championships in 1961. She read a poem written by U.S. national champion Laurence Owen (who died in the crash) said to be an outrageous afterlife premonition.
She was playing Tessa in Now Is Good during the summer of 2011. Also, Fanning became the face of Oh, Lola, Marc Jacobs! Perfume campaign, but advertising in the United Kingdom was banned as the Advertising Standards Authority considered that “the advertisement could be seen to sexualize a child.”
In 2011, in The Motel Life, which was released on November 8, 2013, she played Annie James. In the fall of 2011, with Greg Wise, Tom Sturridge, Robbie Coltrane, Julie Walters, Derek Jacobi, and Claudia Cardinale, Fanning played the leading role in Effie Gray, directed by Richard Laxton, written and co-starred by Emma Thompson.
In August 2012, in a thriller film Night Moves against actors Jesse Eisenberg and Peter Sarsgaard, she played the leading role of a wealthy financial eco-terrorist Dena Brauer. Kelly Reichardt directed the film. Night Moves tells the story of three eco-terrorists working on an organic farm and working together to blow up a hydroelectric dam on a plot.
She was cast in the Errol Flynn biopic The Last of Robin Hood as Beverly Aadland in January 2013. Fanning was cast as Olivia in Franny later that year in September. She was cast as Vienna in November in Vienna and the Fantomes; about a roadie that traveled across America in the 1980s with a punk rock band. The movie is scheduled for release in 2015.
She recorded a voice role for the animated film Yellowbird in February 2014.
Based on Laura Lippman’s 2004 novel, Every Secret Thing was released in the U.S. in May 2015, co-starring Diane Lane, Elizabeth Banks, Danielle Macdonald, Colin Donnell and Nate Parker.
Martin Koolhoven also confirmed in 2015 that Jack Roth joined the Brimstone movie cast. The Hollywood Reporter confirmed in June 2015 that Mia Wasikowska and Robert Pattinson had been replaced in the film by Fanning and Kit Harington respectively. The primary recording set started on June 15 and will take place in Romania, Spain, and Germany.
It was announced in July 2016 that Fanning was cast as Esther Greenwood in a film adaptation of The Bell Jar. The film is directed by Kirsten Dunst.
In 2017, as part of Blomkamp’s series of experimental short films released through Oats Studios, Fanning starred in Neil Blomkamp’s Zygote.
In the heist comedy Ocean’s 8, released in 2018, Fanning played a cameo role. She also starred on the same-name novel in the TNT historical television series The Alienist. Fanning was announced on June 6, 2018 to play Squeaky Fromme in the upcoming Once Upon a Time in Hollywood, Quentin Tarantino
Dakota Fanning Twilight
Dakota played the role of Jane Volturi in the film Twilight saga a series of five romance fantasy films from Summit Entertainment based on the four novels by American author Stephenie Meyer.
Dakota Fanning Friends
In 2004 she made an appearance on season ten of the television series Friends, playing the role of Mackenzie, a young girl who is moving out of the house Monica and Chandler are buying.
Dakota Fanning Movies
2019 Once Upon a Time in Hollywood as Squeaky Fromme
2018 Ocean’s 8 as Penelope Stern
2017 Viena and the Fantomes as Viena
2017 Zygote as Barklay
2017 Please Stand By as Wendy
2016 Brimstone as Liz
2016 American Pastoral as Merry Levov
2016 The Escape as Lily
2015 The Benefactor as Olivia
2014 Effie Gray as Euphemia “Effie” Gray
2014 Every Secret Thing as Ronnie Fuller
2014 Yellowbird as Delf
2013 Night Moves as Dena Brauer
2013 The Last of Robin Hood as Beverly Aadland
2013 Very Good Girls as Lilly Berger
2012 The Twilight Saga: Breaking Dawn – Part 2 as Jane Volturi
2012 Celia Hannah Jones
2012 The Motel Life as Annie James
2012 Now Is Good as Tessa Scott
2010 The Runaways as Cherie Currie
2010 The Twilight Saga: Eclipse as Jane Volturi
2009 Coraline as Coraline Jones
2009 Push as Cassie Holmes
2009 Fragments – Winged Creatures as Anne Hagen
2009 The Twilight Saga: New Moon as Jane Volturi
2008 The Secret Life of Bees as Lily Owens
2007 Hounddog as Lewellen
2007 Cutlass as Lacy
2006 Charlotte’s Web as Fern Arable
2005 Hide and Seek as Emily Callaway
2005 Lilo & Stitch 2: Stitch Has a Glitch as Lilo Pelekai
2005 Nine Lives as Maria
2005 War of the Worlds as Rachel Ferrier
2005 Dreamer as Cale Crane
2004 Man on Fire as Lupita “Pita” Martin Ramos
2004 My Neighbor Totoro as Satsuki Kusakabe
2004 In the Realms of the Unreal as Narrator
2003 Uptown Girls as Lorraine “Ray” Schleine
2003 The Cat in the Hat as Sally Walden
2003 Kim Possible: A Sitch in Time as Preschool Kim
2002 Trapped as Abigail “Abbie” Jennings
2002 Sweet Home Alabama as Young Melanie
2002 Hansel and Gretel as Katie
2001 Father Xmas as Clairee
2001 Tomcats as Little Girl in Park
2001 I Am Sam as Lucy Diamond Dawson
TBA Sweetness in the Belly as Lilly Abdal
Dakota Fanning TV Show
2019 gen: LOCK as Miranda Worth (voice)
2019 Random Acts as Coraline Jones (voice)
2018 The Alienist as Sara Howard
2004 Justice League Unlimited as Young Wonder Woman (voice)
2004 Friends as Mackenzie
2002 Taken as Allie Keys
2001 Malcolm in the Middle as Emily
2001 The Fighting Fitzgeralds as Marie
2001 Family Guy as Little girl
2001 The Ellen Show as Young Ellen
2000 ER as Delia Chadsey
2000 Ally McBeal as Ally (5 years old)
2000 Strong Medicine as Edie’s Girl
2000 CSI: Crime Scene Investigation as Brenda Collins
2000 The Practice as Alessa Engel
2000 Spin City as Cindy
Dakota Fanning Award
She received an award for Best young actor/actress, Broadcast Film Critics Association, for I Am Sam, 2002.
Dakota Fanning Facebook
Dakota Fanning Twitter
Dakota Fanning Instagram
Dakota Fanning Interview
Dakota Fanning (‘The Alienist’): ‘I’ve never brought any sort of heaviness or darkness home with me’ [Complete Interview Transcript]
Updated: June 8, 2018
Gold Derby: Dakota, “The Alienist” airing now on TNT. Tell us about when you first got this script, what attracted you to such a dark-type project?
Dakota Fanning: Well I was introduced to the story through the first three scripts. I read the first three episodes and I was drawn to the character that I play, of course, Sara Howard. She’s the first female to work for the New York Police Department, and I was just thrilled at the opportunity to show such a pioneer, kind of groundbreaking character for 1896. We didn’t get to see women in those positions very often so I loved that aspect of the story. There is darkness, of course. I think I tend to be drawn to darker subject matter in general. I loved getting to see the world of New York during this time and the corruption and the different areas of the city and who lived where and the dynamics of people trying to cohabitate in a very changing world. One of my favorite things when I first read it was the birth of forensics and science and psychology that we kind of see throughout the series. Sara had a line in Episode 2, saying, “Isn’t it surmised that people’s fingerprints do not change over the course of their lifetime?” And I read that and was like, “Oh my god, of course. There would’ve been a time where people didn’t realize that.” It’s hard to imagine in today’s day and age of DNA and fingerprints and all that stuff that, of course there was someone who had to discover that and people learning about those methods and using those methods and applying them to, in this case, crime and crime-solving. I was fascinated by that aspect of it. I knew I would be as a viewer and then, of course, as an actor in the story.
GD: Well as you mentioned, she’s a woman in a man’s world and really first of her kind doing what she’s doing. I catch little subtle nods to current day in terms of women in a man’s world in different professions and so forth. Is that something about the role that you really liked?
DF: I did, and we filmed this from March to September of 2017 so we were filming it a little bit before it was as relevant of a conversation as it is I think particularly right now. But now knowing that that conversation is happening in 2018 and then seeing these situations that Sara’s facing that are set in 1896, it’s kind of disappointing to say that they’re relevant and timely and using those words. I’ve met so many young women who have been watching the show who latch onto that and who, you’re able to gain a perspective of how history kind of repeats itself and that these situations, we haven’t found a way to completely solve them ‘cause they’re still happening in a very similar way to 1896, so I think that’s it’s been cause for positive conversation and it’s just by chance that this story… People have been trying to make this story for so long, whether it be a film or now we have this limited series platform so I don’t think it’s a coincidence that it’s all lining up this way. I think that it was always meant to be.
GD: All of your characters have to deal with some gruesome things that happened to other characters. I’m sure shooting some on those days you really have to prepare for that mentally and emotionally. How do you do that and how do you get rid of that when you go home at the end of the day?
DF: Yeah, for me, I think I’ve kind of been able to trace it back to starting so young as an actor that the lines between what was real and what was pretend were very clear. They were always made very clear to me, so I think that I carried that throughout my life and throughout my work of being able to completely shut off the moment they say cut, I’m back to myself and I see that this corpse is not a real corpse. It’s like rubber and blood that you can eat and whatever. I see behind that movie magic kind of facade. So I’m lucky that I’ve never brought any sort of heaviness or darkness home with me. I’ve always been able to separate that. But I think that’s also due to the people that you work with as well. I think that especially me and Luke [Evans] and Daniel [Brühl], we had a very healthy perspective and we had such a great dynamic amongst the three of us and so much love for each other, we were able to get each other through that.
GD: Well let’s talk about them for just a moment. Daniel’s character to your character, really anybody else that he encounters is very cold and not sympathetic really at all. What’s it like working with a character like that and then how is he different in real life?
DF: Well, I just can’t say enough about the friendship between the three of us. I’m literally in a group chat that they’re together right now trying to make plans to meet up for dinner and I’m getting all their messages ‘cause we’re in this group chat that we created in Budapest! So our friendship has lasted and deepened since the day we met and they’re really dear lifelong friends and I’m so thrilled about that. And then as actors, I just so loved working with both of them and Sara has such a different and important dynamic with each one. I think that Sara is intimidating to Dr. Kreizler and I think that they have a dynamic that you see throughout the series change and they have growing pains at a certain point and you see that even though Dr. Kreizler is such a progressive character in the story and he believes in ideas and theories that are not accepted in this time, there’s sometimes still he’s threatened by the notion of a woman standing up to him or a woman being right and him being wrong. We still kind of see that, so I love getting to have those moments with Daniel as Dr. Kreizler but as a human being he couldn’t be more lovely and he’s not cold. He’s very warm and just the best. And then Luke is the life of the party, the definition of fun and he’s the guy that bursts into song when they say cut, makes up a song about our surroundings. That’s who he is.
GD: As an actress when you’re on a project like this that’s so lavish in its production design and costumes, how does that help you get into the role and how did that environment of it being such high production values help you?
DF: It just helps you so much, I think. I haven’t worked on a production that was this kind of detailed and having actual sets and the costumes, there was nothing that was sort of make believe. Everything was there. Yes, okay, the building of the Williamsburg Bridge, that had to be CGI, but all those buildings and all the props and everything that we were coming into contact with was real from the period and it’s so helpful as an actor. I think that was the thing that we felt so lucky, that everyone wanted to make it as beautiful and rich and detailed as they could from the costumes to the sets to the props to every aspect of it. First and foremost was the authenticity of the period and yeah, as an actor it completely puts you into the character’s headspace. It’s the closest thing to time travel that you can experience (laughs).
GD: All of your careers really has been in film until this project. Is there really a line anymore between film and television in terms of production values and scripts and who you get to work with?
DF: I don’t think so. I think it’s been maybe permanently blurred (laughs). I think that the core of making something for film and television is the same. You know what I mean? You’re telling a story, you’re playing characters, you’re trying to connect with people through a screen to make people feel something, to entertain. That doesn’t change whether it’s a film or whether it’s a TV series, limited series, whatever it is. That’s what actors are trying to do. So that doesn’t ever change but I think that what’s been so exciting about being a part of “The Alienist” is the amount of people that it’s been able to reach. A lot of the times you make a film and it comes out and it’s in a couple of theaters, like one in New York, one in L.A. and it’s only there for these certain dates and you either see it or you don’t and sometimes it’s on demand later, sometimes it’s not. It’s hard for people to find it and that can feel disappointing when you put so much effort into something and you feel like it can get lost just by chance. And so one of the best things about being part of “The Alienist” for me is, the doormen in my building are watching it, the people that I’m seeing at a restaurant, they’re watching. It’s so accessible to people. They know where to find it, there’s a particular time that it comes on, you can record it, watch it later, you can watch it that night, whatever. It’s reached so many more people than a film that I’ve done in a while and that’s been so gratifying and exciting and you feel like all this hard work that so many people put into it pays off through the amount of people that it gets to touch and I’ve loved the experience of talking to people who are watching the show and meeting them by chance has been really, really lovely.
GD: A couple questions to end with, we’re an awards website so I think this is gonna be the kind of project that really comes on strong with Emmy voters here in a few months. You were one of the youngest nominees ever at the Screen Actors Guild Awards. What do you remember about that particular night and experience?
DF: I remember so much. It was my first time ever attending an award show of that magnitude and then being nominated, I was nominated with actresses that I admired so much and I remember I was in a category with Cameron Diaz, and Cameron Diaz was the end-all be-all to me. I was a little girl and I kind of looked up to her, she was blonde, I was blonde. I don’t know, I saw something of myself in her and I remember I got to meet her and it was so exciting and thrilling. I believe I’m still the youngest nominee, so I love that little fact. I got to go back, I was at the SAG Awards this past one, I got to present, and I don’t know, it’s always fun. The room kind of looks the same to me as it did when I was six (laughs).
GD: Well they always say that’s one of the best ones for an actor.
DF: Well it’s your peers, yeah, totally. I think to be recognized by other actors and your peers is always a nice thing. So it’s a room full of supportive people.
GD: And we’re just coming off Oscar season. I can still remember for the past 12 or 14 years they release the list of people that get invited to join the Academy and you were one of the youngest people invited to join the Academy. So you’ve been voting quite a while now.
DF: I have been voting quite a while, yes I have. I remember I read that I was going to be asked to be in the Academy on my Yahoo homepage when I was checking my email when I was a little girl, and I called my mom, and I was like, “this can’t be true.” It wasn’t even on my radar that it was a possibility for me, so that was very exciting, and again, group of people I’m proud to be a part of, people who love celebrating movies and making movies.
GD: Well I always love asking this when I’ve got an Oscar voter in front of me. Not that you have to give specifics but when you’ve got an acting category in front of you and you’re thinking about those four in a given year, what’s going through your mind? What types of roles and performances tend to get your attention?
DF: God, it’s such a hard thing because can there ever be a “Best Actor”? I don’t know. You know what I mean? There can be something that just touches me in a different way ‘cause it’s a feeling or a story that I recognize or that I connect with in a specific way. I think it’s just about an instinct and a connection. Like I said, I think as an actor that’s what you’re trying to do, you’re trying to make a connection with a human being through the screen, to touch somebody, to make them feel something and so whatever makes me feel something is usually what I vote for, I guess.
GD: Well those Emmy voters might be touched and feeling something off of “The Alienist.” Maybe we’ll see you on the Emmy red carpet in a few weeks.
DF: That’s very nice, thank you (laughs).
Source: goldderby.com