Dakota FanningFew would disagree that Hannah Dakota Fanning, born in the southern United
States on Feburary, 1994, is one of the most impressive young actresses on
film today. Having worked with cinema legends such as Christopher Walken,
Robert DeNiro, and Denzel Washington, Dakota had by the age of 10 amassed a
résumé to be the source of envy of most professional actors thrice her
age.
Dakota oozed talent very early on, and at 5 years old, she launched what
would become an extremely promising career by starring in a Tide detergent
commercial. Dakota would subsequently appear in small roles in TV series
such as ER, Ally McBeal, CSI, and even animated cult-classic Family Guy,
which fed her career until her theatrical debut in 2001 with her role as
Lucy Diamond Dawson in I Am
Sam.
 5-year-old Dakota appears in a commercial for Tide. After the opening of I Am
Sam, Dakota accelerated from zero to famous seemingly overnight. Most
claim Dakota held her own against her more experienced colleagues Sean Penn
and Michelle Pfeiffer, but I maintain that she consistently upstaged them.
In any case, Dakota's performance as Lucy garnered her a genuine respect
for her innate abilities. And it got her noticed.
Dakota's career exploded, and she began cranking out movies at an average
of 3 per year – an astounding rate for any actor, let alone for a little
girl who still had to find time for her schooling. Dakota worked along
side some noteworthy names: Charlize Theron in Trapped (2002); Reese Witherspoon in Sweet Home
Alabama (2002); director Steven Spielberg in Taken (2002); Brittany Murphy in Uptown Girls (2003);
and Mike Myers in The Cat in the Hat (2003).
As impressive as Dakota is – and Dakota is impressive – she can do only
so much with bad roles and bad writing. Although movies such as Uptown Girls and The Cat in the
Hat, while technically not great can stand on certain merits, Hansel &
Gretel is a tragic mistake that would do well to be erased from
history. Or at least from Dakota's curriculum vitae.
 Even a bad
movie like Hansel & Gretel can't stop Dakota from being lovely. Still, any serious Dakota fan owns Hansel & Gretel. I do.
(Although I'm too embarrassed to tell my friends.)
In 2004, Dakota appeared with Denzel Washington in the adaptation of the
A.J. Quinnell's novel Man on Fire. This movie could be her best
performance since Taken,
and although Dakota appears in only half the film, she is widely recognized
for it. Dakota not only received top billing for this role, but she was
also instrumental in the film's advertising campaign. This is a testimony
to Dakota's popularity as a rising star.
Dakota has a proven versatility in all genres, but she truly shines in her
dramatic roles. Child actors are usually good at being either cute and
vulnerable, or wise beyond their years. Dakota has an uncanny ability to
meld these qualities into a very believable character. Consider her roles
as Lucy in I Am Sam,
Allie in Taken, and Pita
in Man on Fire: in
all three cases, Dakota plays an extremely intelligent and mature girl who
portrays singular wisdom, and yet in all three cases, her characters are
credibly tender and compassionate, like any usual little girl. Dakota is
anything but usual.
Since Man on Fire, Dakota has performed with Robert DeNiro in Hide and Seek, couch
jumper Tom Cruise in War of the Worlds, and Kurt Russell
in Dreamer. Dakota
consistently receives glowing praise from very prominent names. In fact,
Dakota impressed Spielberg so much with her performance in Taken, that he specifically
intended Dakota for her role as Rachel in his adaptation of the cult radio
drama War of the
Worlds. Says Spielberg, "Dakota Fanning was on my mind the second I
decided to make War of the Worlds. I know no one her
age that’s better than she is and more intuitive about human nature. She
has a very wise old soul; it’s like she’s been around about seven or
eight times."
 Dakota as Allie Keys in Taken. Of her ability as an actor, I think Dylan Baker (Hide & Seek) said it best: "Woa,
she's good!" And of Dakota's genuine loveliness, Mike Myers puts it even
more eloquently: "I found myself just really wanting to gnaw on her head a
little bit. Not break the skin but just sort of gnaw on it a bit, because
she's so incredibly sweet."
Reviewed Movies
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Dakota's Pictures
From I Am Sam
From Hansel & Gretel
From Trapped
From Sweet Home Alabama
From The Cat in the Hat
From Taken
From Uptown Girls
From Hide & Seek
From War of the Worlds
From Man on Fire
From Nine Lives
From Hounddog
From Charlotte's Web
From Fragments
From Coraline
From Push
Dakota's Sites |
