8 Reasons Dakota Fanning is Awesome

by Brittany Geragotelis

All photos courtesy of Marie Claire

A couple of years ago I had the profound pleasure of interviewing Miss Dakota Fanning for the magazine. I had exactly 10 minutes to talk with her according to her publicist...that day, I talked quicker than I'd ever talked in my life, in order to get as many questions in as I could. Even after such a short amount of time, I could tell that Dakota was a cool character. And by the looks of this Marie Claire cover and spread, she's like wine...she only gets better with age.


Here are my top 8 reasons that Dakota's awesome!

1. Student by day, actress by night. She goes to regular school and is treated no differently than her classmates despite her hollywood status. And it was her decision to go to regular school instead of being homeschooled. She's said that it was important for her to have normal teenage experiences.
2. She's beyond her years...but in a good way. When I spoke with her, she carried herself like someone twice her age. She was well-spoken, confident and was conscious of everything she said. And although she's clearly more mature than her 17 years of age, she's not itching to grow up faster than she has to. In other words, you won't see her dancing drunkenly on any bars anytime soon.
3. She makes smart career choices. Check out a few of her past projects: I Am Sam, Uptown Girls, The Cat in the Hat, Man on Fire, Hide and Seek, War of the Worlds, Charlotte's Web, Hounddog, The Secret Life of Bees, Coraline, The Twilight Saga: New Moon, The Twilight Saga: Eclipse and The Runaways.
4. She went through her awkward years with grace. She began acting at the age of 8, and as she got older, she lost teeth, had pimples, developed curves and attempted to discover her own style. And yet, you never really heard her complain about it. I'm not saying that she never felt awkward during this time, but she's certainly come out on the pretty side and minus any eating disorders, plastic surgery or drug and alcohol abuse problems.
5. She's a cheerleader! Yep. Dakota stars in hit movies and somehow still finds time to cheer on her high school squad. Though she'll leave to do projects, she always comes back to her team and cheers alongside them on the sidelines. The girl sure knows what's important to her.
6. She's freaking cute! I mean, seriously. Just look at her. Go ahead, look....I'll wait.
7. She doesn't mind pushing the boundaries. She shot a rape scene when she was 12 years old for the movie Hounddog. When people became outraged that Dakota's parents had allowed her to shoot such an adult scene, she told them that it wasn't really happening and that "it's called acting." She recently had her first onscreen kiss in the movie Runaways...with Kristin Stewart!
8. She's pretty badass. Her character in the Twilight saga hasn't had a ton of screen time yet, but Dakota has nearly stolen every scene she's been in. I'd love to see this girl really bare her fangs.


5x5,
B.