As part of the publicity for Dreamer: Inspired by a True Story (which we’ll have a couple reviews of tomorrow), Dakota Fanning recently came to town for interviews and promotion. December & I sat in on a round table interview with her, which was a little surreal for me. In movies, Fanning has this kind of precociousness and adult quality that’s mighty disconcerting coming from an 11 year old. In real life, however, she acted like any other 11 year old girl (albeit one with one seriously bad-ass hobby.) While she might not have the storied history or press ready banter of a seasoned actor, she makes up for that by being just genuinely upbeat and enthusiastic.
Note: Since this was a round table interview, the questions all came from different journalists and critics. See if you can guess which ones we asked….
As part of the publicity for Dreamer: Inspired by a True Story (which we’ll have a couple reviews of tomorrow), Dakota Fanning recently came to town for interviews and promotion. December & I sat in on a round table interview with her, which was a little surreal for me. In movies, Fanning has this kind of precociousness and adult quality that’s mighty disconcerting coming from an 11 year old. In real life, however, she acted like any other 11 year old girl (albeit one with one seriously bad-ass hobby.) While she might not have the storied history or press ready banter of a seasoned actor, she makes up for that by being just genuinely upbeat and enthusiastic.
Note: Since this was a round table interview, the questions all came from different journalists and critics. See if you can guess which ones we asked….
How much do you know about Mariah’s Storm, the horse that inspired really this movie?
Mariah Storm was a race horse that broke its leg in the very same way the horse in the movie does ,and she was nursed back to health, and she’s the mother to Giants Causeway, which was a very race great race horse.
So is it nice not make a movie where everything’s blowing up or people are trying to kill you?
I made this movie before I did Worlds War, so it was a big change but itwas fun.
What was your experience with horses before this film?
I didn’t have any experiences I didn’t know about them at all, so I had to learn about them from the beginning. I had to learn how to ride and take care of them.
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| Seriously. She’s like the cutest kid ever. |
Do you like horses and are you comfortable around them now?
I do and I have a horse now, Goldie, Kurt gave him to me. (editor: Kurt Russell (who plays her dad in the film) presented Dakota with a quarter million dollar palimino after the filming)
That’s a nice gift! So instead of walking away with a wardrobe you get a horse. Awesome!
Yeah
Wasn’t the part originally written for a teenage boy?
It was written for a boy, yes and then the director chose me.
Part of the filming was done in New Orleans, when was that done in relation to Katrina?
Yes, it was exactly a year ago, we filmed in Lexington and New Orleans, and that part of the film was where the hurricane was.
Getting to work with actors like Denzel Washington, Robert DeNeiro, Tom Cruse and Kurt Russell, are they helpful to you as an actor?
They are, and getting to learn from them was incredible and so much fun!
Kurt Russell himself started when he was pretty young.
He did! He’s been acting for almost 40 years.
Did he give you any good advice?
No, well we just had a really good time
You and Elizabeth Shue also worked together on other film, did you know she was going to be working on Dreamer?
I knew when I got to Kentucky she was going to be on it, and I was go glad!
I read somewhere where you said that you were happy that you could be nice to her for a change.
Yeah, I was because when we were in “Hide & Seek” I was so bad to her and did some bad things to her.
When did you know that you wanted to be an actress, right out of the womb?
I’ve been acting for five years and it was something I’d always wanted to do
Were you scared at all during the movie? There is a scene where the horse just takes off, your probably used a stuntman for a portion of that,
but were you scared doing that?
No, I was on a fake horse-I couldn’t have a helmet on in that scene-and I had a helmet on because they wouldn’t let me do it without a helmet.
-What was the most challenging thing for you in the whole film? Was there a particular scene you had difficulty with?
They were all very exciting to me because they were all diverse and different from each other. The really different thing in this movie was that I got to
learn to ride the horses and everything.
Not really being around horses did you find yourself pretty nervous or scared or were you pretty comfortable around them?
I had been around them for so long that they just made me feel comfortable
You had some scenes with Kris Kristofferson who has this really deep kind of gruff voice was it hard to get use to that when you were working with him?
No, he was so sweet and I really loved working with him.
You have this big scene when you’re in front of the Breeders Cup Commission, was it a lot of fun to get up there and -you get to school all these rich aristocrats- you get to just stand up and smack em down, was that fun to do?
It was fun, something I’ll probably never do in my real life.
How do you look at your own career, looking at Kurt Russell and how he evolved from when he was really young…is that your own goal?
That’s what I want to be is an actress
What do you look for when accepting roles?
Well different things than what I’ve done before and sometimes I do more dramatic and then comedic roles and then another dramatic.
How much do you really educate yourself about the role? Obviously you had to train on the horses, but did you do much reading or research on racing and breeding for the role?
Well we were in Kentucky and just by going there it was just horses, horses, horses, so that helped a lot.
You’re providing the emotional heart of this film. Does that feel like a lot of responsibility on you to be what Kurt Russell, Kris Krisofferson expect you to be, and still have to the film focuses on you?
I don’t think it would be the same without the cast all of the cast is important. We’re like a big family.
Is it more fun to do big budget action films or these more personal movies?
They’re both fun in different ways
In War of the Worlds you’re traumatized for about 80 percent of the movie
D-War of the Worlds was fun in different ways but I liked them all for different reasons.
Do you find that films from the heart are a little less stressful for you instead of always trying to be wigged out throughout the whole film?
Right, sometimes this.. it’s stressful in different ways, to be playing these characters, but I think it comes pretty easy when you’re working with other great actors and you sort of work off of them.
A lot of people don’t know that you’ve done voice work for cartoons, how does that compare with what you’re doing now?
It’s totally different. It’s not the same at all. In acting it’s more subtle and when you’re doing voiceovers its really loud, not subtle at all but really loud and not so natural.
Is that tougher to do because you don’t have the other actors to work off of?
No, you just sort of work with your cartoon, your character. You just watch it and do the lines.
This is actually the first film you’ve done in a while where your friends, and kids you age can actually by a ticket
Yes, I think its great that everyone can go see it