Dakota Fanning

Thursday, 08 April 2010 13:30

It may take some getting used to, seeing “little girl” Dakota Fanning grow up in fast forward, but she's determined to do just that. In this month’s The Runaways, she plays the jailbait tabloid sex goddess and out-of-control punk performer Cheri Currie in Joan Jett's tomboy band of the same name. In this very grown-up role, she navigates a supermarket in barely there lingerie and stacked heels while strung out in search of vodka before disappearing into rehab—not to mention getting into a semi-steamy makeout session with Kristen Stewart (as Jett). But according to the 16-year-old Dakota during this candid conversation, it's time to move on, and her fans can take it or leave it. Also up for discussion is her ho-hum take on rebel attitude, the prophetic powers of a cherry tattoo and just how far she was going to be allowed to get in touch with her erotic side in the movie.

By Prairie Miller

You don't seem to be at all the Dakota in this movie that everybody has cometo know as a little girl in movies like I Am Sam.
That was a long time ago.

Are you concerned with what your fans will take away from this movie, which is an incredibly different side of you that we've never seen before?
I'm not nervous, because I think the people who are true fans or really enjoy the movie or the work that you do will understand the choices that you're making, and why you make those choices. And they'll accept that, I guess. I don't know!
But yeah, obviously because they've seen me in I Am Sam when I was really little, they have this idea about me. But I'm getting older now. And I want my career and the movies that I do to get older with me. And I hope that everyone can do that with me.

What lured you into playing Cheri Currie?
No one else would be playing the role but me!

Huh?
I mean, I really wanted to be the one to be able to do it. And I hoped that they would let me do it, do you know what I mean? But I did it because I just loved the character of Cherie. And not really knowing about The Runaways, it was just kind of reading the script and that was my introduction. But it was really great. And I just wanted to be able to play that out, and live her life for a little bit.

Were you surprised when this role came along, or was it a deliberate choice to get sexier on screen?
I think the way that anybody chooses movies, or the way that I choose movies, it's not deliberate. I don't really even know why I choose the movies that I do. It's just something about it that makes you want to do it. And it just happens to be that it was more of a different subject matter than I'd done before.

Would you say you're anything like Cheri, in that price-of-fame game?
Well, I think they all become numb to the outside world. You know, whatever is going on and what everyone is saying about them. And I think that's kind of what you see in the movie.

What about those sex scenes? I hear you were annoyed about rules as to what you could and couldn't do as an underage actress.
Yeah. I mean, we did it! I don’t know if there’s anything specific that I was thinking. It is a lot of pressure, but it was good pressure. But it was exciting and a challenge, and I liked that. And I think when you know a character so well you just kind of ... know what to do!

Really? < br / > There was nothing in the script that I couldn't do. It wasn't like that.

This movie is a lot about rebellion. Do you have a rebellious side?
I didn’t grow up in a time when I thought I couldn’t be something, or I couldn’t do something. So that thought had never occurred to me. And I think a lot of girls my age probably feel that way, and don’t realize that there was a time when you actually couldn’t be what you wanted to be. So I don’t think a lot of people really know how hard it was for these girls back then.

Does the music speak to you like it did to people at that time?
It does to me, just because it reminds of the time in my life when I was so immersed in playing Cherie. So, especially for me, it carries a different thing. Every time that I hear the music, it takes me back to those times. Which is what I love about the music. So yeah, it's special to me.

So how ready were you to do music in The Runaways?
I didn't have to play an instrument in the movie. I just sang.

What about the mic checks, how did that go?
Yeah, that was cool. I learned that. Cherie taught me how to do that, which was a really, really special moment for me.

And didn't you travel with a live band for a while, getting the feel for the stage and performing with all those amps around?
[Director] Floria [Sigismondi]’s husband is in a band called The Living Things. And so I didn't perform, but I just went to their home studio and sang some of the songs with them. You know, to kind of see what it would feel like. You can never really feel what it's going to be like though, until you're really actually filming.

After getting so deeply into the music, any plans to make your own album now?
No!

You and co-star Kristen Stewart, whom you also co-star with in this summer’s Twilight, have both grown up on camera. Did you two ever meet before, and were you paying attention to each other's careers before working together?
It's weird to talk about a time that we didn't know each other really well. But it's someone that you know is going to be your friend for a long time.

Well Kristen said she sees you as an older sister.
Ha!

This is a story about friendship, and also artistic rivalry. So did the two of you ever get into a thing about who was going to get the most close-ups?
Nah.

Is it true that Cherie said you got a temporary tattoo of a cherry before reading the script, and you took that as a sign that you were destined to play her?
I came home from school one day and my mom was like, there’s a script you need to read. And I had a temporary cherry tattoo that I had put on for fun that day, because I was bored. And it was a cherry, so she was like oh, the character actually gets a tattoo like that in the movie!