Dakota Fanning
Hannah Dakota Fanning is an American actress. Fanning is known for her roles in blockbuster films and independent features, both as a child actor and as an adult. Her accolades include nominations for a Primetime Emmy Award, a Golden Globe Award, and two Screen Actors Guild Awards.
Fanning received recognition at the age of seven for starring in the drama film I Am Sam, being nominated for the SAG Award for Outstanding Performance by a Female Actor in a Supporting Role and becoming the youngest nominee in SAG history. She then starred in the miniseries Taken, and in the films Uptown Girls, Man on Fire, War of the Worlds, Charlotte's Web, and The Secret Life of Bees. She transitioned to mature roles with The Twilight Saga and the independent films The Runaways and a co-starring role in Night Moves.
Fanning has appeared in films such as Ocean's 8, Once Upon a Time in Hollywood, and The Equalizer 3. Since 2018, she has starred in television series The Alienist, The First Lady, and The Perfect Couple. She has also had a starring role in The Watchers and received renewed critical recognition for the miniseries Ripley in the same year, earning nominations for the Golden Globe Award for Best Supporting Actress – Series, Miniseries or Television Film and a Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Supporting Actress in a Limited or Anthology Series or Movie nomination.
Early life and education
Hannah Dakota Fanning was born on February 23, 1994, in Conyers, Georgia. She attended a Montessori School in Covington. Her mother, Heather Joy, played tennis professionally and her father, Steven J. Fanning, played minor league baseball and later worked as an electronics salesman in Los Angeles. Her maternal grandfather was former American football player Rick Arrington, and her aunt is former ESPN reporter Jill Arrington. Her ancestors include William Farrar. Her paternal grandmother was a German immigrant.In June 2011, Fanning graduated from Campbell Hall School in Studio City, California, where she participated on the varsity spirit cheerleading squad and was twice voted homecoming queen. From 2011 to 2014, she attended the Gallatin School of Individualized Study at New York University majoring in women's studies, with a focus on the portrayal of women in film and culture.
Career
1990s
Fanning first acted at the Towne Lake Arts Center in Woodstock, Georgia, starring in small plays at the age of five. In 1999, she began her professional acting career, appearing in a Tide television commercial. Her first significant acting job was a guest role in the NBC primetime drama ER. Fanning then had several guest roles on television series, including CSI: Crime Scene Investigation, The Practice, and Spin City. She also portrayed the title characters of Ally McBeal and The Ellen Show as adolescents.2000s
In 2001, Fanning was chosen to star opposite Sean Penn and Michelle Pfeiffer in the film I Am Sam, as the daughter of a mentally challenged man who is fighting for child custody. Her role in the film made Fanning the youngest person ever to be nominated for a Screen Actors Guild Award, being seven years of age at the time. She also won the Best Young Actor/Actress award from the Broadcast Film Critics Association for her performance. Fanning's performance would later be incorporated into the music video for Rufus Wainwright's cover of the Beatles' "Across the Universe"; the song itself was included in I Am Sam.In 2002, director Steven Spielberg cast Fanning in the lead child role of Allison "Allie" Clarke/Keys in the science-fiction miniseries Taken. 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 sort of otherworldly look about her, an enchanting young actress called upon... to carry a great weight." In the same year, Fanning appeared in three films: as a kidnapping victim who proves to be more than her abductors bargained for in Trapped, as the young version of Reese Witherspoon's character in Sweet Home Alabama, and as Katie in the film Hansel and Gretel. A year later, she starred in two prominent films, playing the uptight child to an immature nanny played by Brittany Murphy in Uptown Girls and as Sally in The Cat in the Hat. In addition, Fanning did voice-over work for four animated projects during this period, including voicing Satsuki in Disney's English-language release of My Neighbor Totoro, starring alongside her younger sister Elle Fanning, who voiced Mei; a little girl in the Fox series Family Guy; and a young Wonder Woman in the episode "Kids Stuff" from Cartoon Network's Justice League Unlimited.
In 2004, Fanning appeared in Man on Fire as Pita, a nine-year-old who wins over the heart of a retired mercenary hired to protect her from kidnappers. Roger Ebert wrote that Fanning "is a pro at only 10 years old, and creates a heart-winning character." In 2004, she made an appearance on season 10 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. Hide and Seek was her first release in 2005, opposite Robert De Niro. The film was generally panned, but critic Chuck Wilson called it "a fascinating meeting of equals – if the child star challenged the master to a game of stare-down, the legend might very well blink first." Also in 2004, Fanning narrated the documentary film In the Realms of the Unreal.
Fanning voiced Lilo Pelekai in the direct-to-video film Lilo & Stitch 2: Stitch Has a Glitch. She also had a small part in the Rodrigo García film Nine Lives, 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 gifted people that come along every now and then." Fanning also recorded her lead role in Coraline during this time. Fanning completed filming on Dreamer: Inspired by a True Story in late October 2004. Kris Kristofferson, who plays her character's grandfather in the film, said that she is like Bette Davis reincarnated. While promoting her role in Dreamer, Fanning became a registered member of Girl Scouts of the USA at a special ceremony, which was followed by a screening of the film for members of the Girl Scouts of the San Fernando Valley Council.
Fanning then went on to star in War of the Worlds, starring alongside Tom Cruise. Released in reverse order, both films were a critical success. War director Steven Spielberg praised "how quickly 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 to another film without a break: Charlotte's Web, which she finished filming in May 2005 in Australia, and premiered on December 15, 2006. During the summer of 2006, Fanning worked on the film Hounddog, described in press reports as a "dark story of abuse, violence, and Elvis Presley adulation in the rural South." Fanning's parents have been criticized for allowing her to film a scene in which her character is raped. Fanning defended the film, though, by saying to Reuters, "It's not really happening. It's a movie, and it's called acting." Although the film was a failure both at the box office and with critics, Roger Ebert praised Fanning's performance, comparing her to Jodie Foster in Taxi Driver. In the same year, at the age of 12, she was invited to join the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, becoming the youngest member in the academy's history. Later that year, she was ranked 4th in Forbes list of "Top-Earning Stars Aged Under 21", having earned an estimated $4 million in 2006.
In the spring of 2007, she filmed Fragments – Winged Creatures alongside Kate Beckinsale, Guy Pearce, Josh Hutcherson, and Academy Award-winners Forest Whitaker and Jennifer Hudson. She plays Anne Hagen, a girl who witnesses her father's murder and who turns to religion in the aftermath. In July, Fanning appeared on a short film titled Cutlass, one of Glamour's "Reel Moments" based on readers' personal essays. Cutlass was directed by Kate Hudson. From September to the end of the year, Fanning filmed Push, which centers on a group of young American expatriates with telekinetic and clairvoyant abilities who hide from the Division in Hong Kong and band together to try to escape the control of the division. Fanning played Cassie Holmes, a 13-year-old psychic.
In January 2008, Fanning began filming the film adaptation of The Secret Life of Bees, a novel by Sue Monk Kidd. Set in South Carolina in 1964, the story centers on Lily Owens, who escapes her lonely life and troubled relationship with her father by running away with her caregiver and only friend to a South Carolina town, where they are taken in by an eccentric trio of beekeeping sisters.
Her films, horror animation Coraline and science-fiction thriller Push, were released on the same day, February 6, 2009. In March 2008, upon the original creation of the film adaptation Dakota and Elle Fanning were cast to play Kate and Anna, respectively, in the film My Sister's Keeper, but when Dakota heard that she would be required to shave her head for the role, she dropped out of the film, as then did Elle. The two sisters were replaced; Abigail Breslin took on the lead role as Anna Fitzgerald, and Sofia Vassilieva was cast as Kate Fitzgerald. Fanning played Jane, a member of the Volturi Guard, in New Moon and reprised the role in Eclipse, based on novels by Stephenie Meyer. New Moon was released on November 20, 2009, and Eclipse was released on the following June. On in March 2009, she was ranked number three on the list of Forbes ''Most Valuable Young Stars'' after having earned an estimated $14 million.