Dakota Fanning

[Ms.Jessie]

Her invisalign is working wonders! Her teeth used to be pretty bad.

 

[archana]

teen vogue shot is just perfect

 

[Ochi Chernye]

Dakota Fanning: New Moon's New Vamp
With edgy roles in New Moon and The Runaways, Dakota Fanning moves from child actor to full-blown glamour girl.
by Lauren Waterman

At fifteen, Dakota Fanning is finally outgrowing the adjective that's been applied to her so frequently during her decade-long career: precocious. It's not a bad word, of course, and doubtless there are actresses three times her age who would kill to have worked with Sean Penn, Robert De Niro, Tom Cruise, and Denzel Washington—to say nothing of the prodigious natural talent that got Dakota there. But if her brief turn in this month's The Twilight Saga: New Moon signals anything, it's a willingness to shed the self-serious image that—deserved or not—is so widely known it's been sent up in a Saturday Night Live sketch.

Certainly, Dakota's role in the Twilight sequel didn't seem to present too much of an acting challenge. As Jane, a pint-size Volturi vampire who possesses the power to cause pain without even touching her victims, she "kind of just looked at people." Asked how she prepared, Dakota laughs. "I wasn't in my mirror like Zoolander, doing the Blue Steel!" she says. "The red contacts were enough." The actress was drawn to the project for pretty much the same reason any teen would be: It sounded like fun. "I read all four Twilight books in one week. It's such a phenomenon, and I wanted to be able to say that I was a part of it."

Making New Moon also gave Dakota a chance to get to know Kristen Stewart before they started shooting the upcoming Runaways biopic. "We became really close," Dakota says, "like we'd known each other for our whole lives. We talk all the time." Their off-set friendship added a layer of peculiarity to the proceedings on the New Moon set—"I've never been such an evil character, and because I do know Kristen so well, being mean to her was really weird. It's like, Sorry, dude!" But the chemistry came in handy when Dakota and Kristen played punk rockers Cherie Currie (the Runaways' lead singer) and Joan Jett. "The relationship that Joan and Cherie have in the script is kind of the one that Kristen and I have in real life," Dakota says—although, she clarifies, "minus the destructive part." (In an e-mail from the Eclipse set, Kristen effusively praises her costar, writing, "Dakota is one of the most consistently moving actors I have ever worked with. I'm always better with her.")

Dakota sang on several tracks for the seventies-set film, which is simply called The Runaways and is due out in 2010, and she admits that the role is "very different" from anything she's done before. (If you're not sure who Cherie Currie is, know that Gossip Girl Taylor Momsen is rumored to have tried out for the part… and that she's apparently still in character.) But as against type as Dakota's casting may be, the summer spent sporting a platinum wig and "eyeliner that never came off" seems to have had a discernible effect on her style: When she shows up for her Teen Vogue interview, she's wearing jean shorts, high Doc Martens, and a loose, bare black tank top, with a plastic turquoise rosary slung around her neck. Then again, maybe the onetime Marc Jacobs model has always had a bit of an edge; after her first Teen Vogue shoot, when she was just twelve, she took home a pair of custom-made kid-size MJ combat boots. "I still have them!" she happily confirms. "I've had to have them stretched, but I will do anything it takes to squeeze into those shoes."

It would be understandable if the soon-to-be ex-child star had been gun-shy about doing a film with such a heavy dose of sex, drugs, and rock 'n' roll, especially after the backlash she faced over the little-seen indie Hounddog (specifically, the r*pe of her character therein). But Dakota says she's "still baffled by that whole situation," and quite reasonably points out that the difficulties of transitioning from talented tot to adult actress aren't avoidable, unless she wants to retire at sixteen. "I'm going to get older," she says. "And I want to act for the rest of my life—it's what I love—so I have to move forward with my career. The choices that I make might not always please everyone, but I have to do what I feel is appropriate and right for the time."

Asked if she's going through any off-screen teen angst, Dakota says no. "I get my rebellion out through my movies. I'm boring in that way. I enjoy having a normal life." One might imagine that would be tricky, given her celebrity, but Dakota is halfway through her junior year at a private school in Los Angeles, and she says that the kids have never treated her any differently than anyone else. "I started there in the ninth grade, and they were pretty receptive to me right away. I really wanted a home base, because I feel like no matter how old people are, they remember homecoming. They remember their senior prom. And I really wanted that."

According to Dakota, she and her friends spend a fair amount of time eating sushi ("We're going to get mercury poisoning") and watching The Rachel Zoe Project. She hasn't dated much: "One boy from my school," she says. "I have a small class, so the pool is very limited. Everyone kind of knows everyone." Dakota's studying psychology and something called cement sculpture while she weighs movie offers—and she's a cheerleader. Published reports have her as a member of the JV squad, but when this is mentioned, she corrects the error and reveals a bit of the determination that's made the little girl from Georgia a big Hollywood star. "I'm varsity now, thank you," she says. Indeed, she is.

Edited for teenvogue.com. For the complete story pick up the December/January 2010 issue of Teen Vogue, on newsstands November 17!

 

[Vangie]

She looks so gorgeous in posts #736 and #738

 

[alacrity]

AH! can't wait to read the whole Teen Vogue article! She's so well spoken.

Love the look at the press conference, can anyone ID the dress she's wearing?

 

[emmaj]

Ah LOVE her look to bits at the press conference ^ yes can anyone ID the dress at all….is the necklace chanel [ I want!] and it looks like she is wearing the jade chanel nail polish to?
She is perfection….she totally kicks *** over any other NM girls style...and she is only 15!

 

[StarsInHerEyes]

Gucci Resort 2010 Dress

Marc Jacobs Jelly Platform

Coolspotters.com

 

[miarhhs]

She looked very pretty at the press conference, this girl is growing into a very beautiful young lady.

 

[SweetFantasy]

I completely agree!^

 

[sandraswan]

she's going to be such a pretty and stylish lady. her face reminds me of Gemma Ward, isn't it?

 

[j'adore_couture]

Teen Vogue Cover!

Fashionzag Blog via tarsha

 

[Franzy]

I love Dakota! She's really adorable!

 

[Vangie]

She is adorable and great! And she has grown so much! And I love that cover with her!

 

[alacrity]

Not sure if this was posted, such a cute interview!

The teenage star tells Will Lawrence how she keeps her feet – and her purple shoes – on the ground.
It’s 10 o’clock on a Saturday morning and Dakota Fanning is showing off her favourite shoes. The Hollywood starlet is snappily dressed in blue jeans and a chintzy white top, and with her baby blue eyes and slightly crooked smile, the 15-year-old looks very much her age. “Aren’t they cool?” she says, beaming, directing my gaze towards her feet. To be honest, the shoes are quite cool, and seem rather unusual. For a start they look enormous, and they’re also a striking purple colour.
But, even though they carry the mark of fancy shoemakers Marni, some might even call them ugly. “Actually, some people hate them a lot,” she says with a laugh after I injudiciously voice my thoughts out loud. “I have had them a long time. I love shoes. I love high shoes. They are so ugly, but I just love them. I wear them every day, to school, everywhere.”
As she’s still in her teens, Fanning’s enthusiasm for shoes is thoroughly understandable. Unlike the majority of her peers, though, Fanning gets to wear her best shoes not just to school but on the red carpet. Despite her tender years, she has now worked on more than 20 projects – including heavyweight films such as I Am Sam (2001), Man On Fire (2004) and War Of The Worlds (2005).
Her CV is about to get another boost with her forthcoming role in New Moon, the sequel to last year’s vampire smash Twilight, adapted from the novels of the same name by Stephenie Meyer. Fanning plays Jane, a member of the Italian vampire clan known as the Volturi, and she emerges as the nemesis of the series’ heroine Bella Swann (played by Kristen Stewart).

"I’ve been called an old soul, but that’s not a bad thing. I think I’ve always been like that" - Dakota Fanning
​

“My character is kind of evil and mean,” she says, laughing. “I have to have these red eyes which are kind of scary-looking and some really cool scenes. There’s one involving me and all the main cast, and all the other Italian vampires. I wasn’t required to do anything really physical but Jane really wants to get Bella, who just kills my character.” But only metaphorically, right? “Right,” says Fanning. “Jane wants to cause Bella pain so badly and that’s weird because I am really good friends with Kristen in real life now. To be mean to one another is strange, although her being scared of me was kind of cool.”
As chance would have it, Fanning was midway through reading Meyer’s Twilight series when she got the call about the film. “That made reading the parts about Jane really fun when I knew it was going to be me,” she chirps. “I read all four books in a week and really enjoyed them. I think everyone will get something from the movie. I think these films are really for everyone – kids and adults alike, boys and girls ...”
With Twilight’s enormous haul at the box office (worldwide tally now approaching $400 million – around £240m – a figure the producers will hope to double with DVD sales) that’s a reasonable assumption, although most viewers would concede that the Twilight saga is skewed towards a female audience, especially those females in their teens, much like Fanning. But it’s true she could not have joined a more exciting franchise, especially at this stage in her career when she is crossing the threshold into adulthood. Not every talented young actor makes the transition smoothly (think Drew Barrymore, who stuttered for a few years before transforming into a box-office butterfly). With roles in the Twilight saga, present and future, Fanning, it would seem, is now guaranteed an extended run in a copper-bottomed hit.
Just a few days after we meet she’s heading off to begin work on Twilight’s third instalment, Eclipse. “It is getting a bit like a big family,” she says, grinning. “I’m in the second and the third films, and I’m now in the fourth film [Breaking Dawn], too. I am not in too much of it, just a little bit. I make my appearance there to scare Kristen’s character. We start on Eclipse very soon and I have never done that before, where I go back to a movie to do the sequel. When I first signed up I was nervous and didn’t know what to expect. The only person I had ever met from the cast was Kristen, very briefly, like twice, but honestly they were the nicest most welcoming people and I got right into it straight away. I’d never really been the new girl on set.”

Runaway fame

Fanning has certainly bonded with Stewart, the saga’s leading lady. Not only did the two form a relationship on set, they continued working together the moment New Moon finished filming. In fact, just the evening before I sit down with Fanning, she has completed the main photography on The Runaways, a big-screen biopic of the iconic 1970s girl-band of the same name, fronted by Joan Jett. Based loosely on the autobiography of the band’s lead singer Cherie Currie, the film adaptation sees Stewart step into Jett’s leather boots and Fanning into Currie’s.
“I slept a little after we finished last night,” she says, “and then I needed to be up early today to do this interview. It was cool, though. Last night Joan Jett gave me a scarf and I love it. To me, something like that is important because it’s a gift from someone I really look up to.”
Fanning clearly looks up to Stewart, too. “We have been working together for the last six and half weeks and we have been together from morning till night on The Runaways,” she says. “When you’re together like that you can’t help but get close with someone, and Kirsten is just the coolest person ever.
“When I watch her work, I see how much she cares about the part she is playing and how much she wants to get it right. With this film there was so much to live up to as they [The Runaways] were such incredible people in real life. Clearly we’re never going to be as amazing as they were,” says Fanning, “but you try your best and Kristen was putting everything she could into it. I think it’s brilliant work.”
Stewart has clearly had an effect, which actually makes perfect sense. The older actress (Stewart is approaching the heady old age of 20) is incredibly bright and must come across as being exceedingly cool, especially when you’re a 15-year-old girl. And, of course, the pair have plenty in common. Both were child actors. Fanning cites Jodie Foster (one of Stewart’s mentors, from her first movie Panic Room in 2002) as the actress with whom she most wants to work. Fanning says that she’s been called “an old soul” – which is how Stewart also frequently refers to herself.
“I feel like a teenager, not an adult at all, and I don’t think that I have grown up too fast,” says Fanning. “I’ve been called an old soul, but that’s not a bad thing. I think I’ve always been like that.” Fanning does already seem to have been around for a long time. Her big-screen breakthrough came eight years ago, in the 2001 Sean Penn and Michelle Pfeiffer movie I Am Sam. “I remember a long time ago that someone wrote an article saying that Sean Penn gave me a lizard and then it ran away and he bought me another one,” she recalls, laughing. “That was very odd. Why would Sean Penn buy me a lizard?”
It’s hard to know. Maybe he was celebrating the Oscar nomination he earned with I Am Sam? Or maybe not. In any case, the film proved a real boon for the then eight-year-old actress (as well as Penn), making her the youngest person ever to be nominated for a Screen Actor’s Guild Award. She has gone on to appear in movies as diverse as Hansel And Gretel (2002), The Cat In The Hat (2003), Hide And Seek (2005), Charlotte’s Web (2006) and The Secret Life Of Bees (2008). She is now, it seems, approaching womanhood with her career and her life very much on track. “Honestly,” she repeats for emphasis, “I don’t think I am growing up too fast at all.”

Early starter

Fanning was born in Conyers, Georgia, the daughter of Joy, a tennis professional, and Steve, a former minor-league baseball player with the St. Louis Cardinals. She began acting at the age of five after appearing on a television commercial for stain removal specialists Tide (a performance which is now readily available on YouTube). Her first significant job came with a role on the US prime-time drama ER (“I played a car accident victim who has leukaemia. I got to wear a neck brace and nose tubes for the two days I worked”). She also enjoyed several guest roles on television series such as CSI: Crime Scene Investigation, Friends, The Practice and Spin City, and portrayed the title characters from both Ally McBeal and The Ellen Show as their younger selves.
Much of her education unfolded in private, on film sets, although she has now joined Campbell Hall School in North Hollywood, California, and is on the cheerleading squad. And then there’s religion. “My family is Christian and I am Christian and I go to church,” she says. “It’s a big part of my life.” She lives at home with her parents and her 11-year-old sister Elle, who has also taken her first steps along the acting trail (one notable performance saw her performing as the young Cate Blanchett in The Curious Case Of Benjamin Button last year).
“I love my sister,” says Fanning when I ask about sibling rivalry. So that’s that then. Or maybe not. “I have this blue blazer that I really love. I wear it to school all the time. It is my favourite thing. And then I noticed it was missing. She [Elle] is very tall so we can share things but one day it was gone. I thought it must be at the dry cleaners so I didn’t freak out. Then we picked her up from school and she was wearing my blazer ... I recognised the gold buttons. I was like, ‘No, you just do not do that.’ And now I come home from work and I’ll see all these clothes in a pile and think, ‘I didn’t have all those things out.’ She has started to steal my outfits.”
Given her rising stature in Hollywood, it’s hard to avoid thinking that Fanning can afford to share her wardrobe. She now has the Twilight franchise to support her and hopes acting will continue to pay the bills. “I know this is what I want to do for the rest of my life,” she says, confidently. “Although I know things can change. You have to live for the moment and know that some things might not be there forever.” Now she does sound like an old soul. “I know you shouldn’t take things for granted. I don’t think I ever feel completely secure, but I’m secure in the fact that I know what I want to do – I think that’s the main thing.”
Feet on the ground or otherwise, Fanning seems well set for the type of frenzied adulation and scrutiny the Twilight movies seem to inspire. The tabloids have already welded the two leading actors, Stewart and Robert Pattinson, into a potential item, and Fanning will no doubt come under the same type of pressure, especially as she approaches 18. Let’s not forget, she’s already been cast as the recipient of a fictional lizard. “That was a dumb story,” she says again, “and there’s another one that said I always carried a book of baby names around with me.”
Really? So where did that one come from? “I do love names and I did have a book of baby names when I was younger and I would go through all the names and wonder what it would’ve been like to be called so-and-so,” she says. “I would put a tick if I liked a certain name and a cross if I didn’t. I still have the book, but I don’t carry a book of baby names. I can categorically deny that rumour.”
I feel relieved. “Now, a rumour about my shoes,” she says, casting her eyes at her purple Marnis once more, “that would be much more fun.”

The Twilight Saga: New Moon is released in cinemas on November 20.

source: www.heraldscotland.com

 

[jemina]

I love Teen Vogue pics of her

 

[foreverandnone]

something is off about the cover D:
All the other pics are great though.

She looks so gorgeous at the New Moon event

 

[StarsInHerEyes]

The Purple Shoes:

http://coolspotters.com/shoes/marni-high-heels

Doma Cropped Washed-Leather Biker Jacket:

Coolspotters.com

 

[DanielaDany]

New clip from New Moon.. and also Dakota on Ellen DeGeneres show. Watch it HERE. I guess Dakota and the Volturi are my only reason to watch the whole movie.

 

[Alvedansen]

First star's Celebration Gala 15-Nov-2009 - thecelebritycity

 

[Bacata]

^lovely!