I Hate Dakota Fanning!

I HATE DAKOTA FANNING! There now, I've gone and said it.  I thought that just might make you sit up and take notice,  now that I have your attention, let me elaborate.  Dakota Fanning, is the most important and influential child star of the new millennium  and is poised to embark upon a new career as an adult actress. I can count on the fingers of one hand the child stars that stand in her shadow: Margret O’Brian, Shirley Temple, Tatum O’Neal and Jodie Foster.  Did I ever tell you how much I hate Dakota Fanning?
     Dakota Fanning, (Gwad how I hate her!) So what's not to like?  She’s  young, smart, beautiful, a talented actress.  Dakota is a funny girl. Generous to her fans,  she involves her self in numerous worthy charities like Walk-fit, Stand up to Cancer, PSA for (RED), Alzheimer association, Shane’s Inspiration, St Jude’s children research hospital, children’s health and voter education. By all estimations Dakota is a good girl, she gets good grades, is enrolled in NYU. She doesn’t drink, smoke or do drugs─Neither has she been to rehab nor become embroiled in a Hollywood tabloid scandal.

      Yet the haters persist. WHY? I’ll tell you in a single word: Jealousy. Just what are some of the Dakota Fanning haters saying? “Dakota Fanning is like in every single movie involving children ever.” This common accusation is obviously as stupid as it is un-true. A variation on this theme is that Dakota Fanning is the “Go to” child actress, that she is the mastermind behind a vast Hollywood conspiracy and she diabolically usurps or “steals” roles from every other (and presumably more deserving) aspiring young actress in Hollywood. That argument amounts to nothing more than sour grapes. It seems that I recall Annasophia Robb was cast in Because of Winn Dixie (2005). Abigail Breslin managed to land the role in Kit Kittredge: American Girl (2008), and Nim’s Island (2008), so much for that steaming load of bunk.

      One of my favorite criticisms and the one the “haters” seem to feel has the most traction: Dakota’s perceived obnoxious screaming in War of the Worlds (2005).  One poster summed it up thusly: “Dakota Fanning has to win for worst child actor. Between this and her screeching ear splitting screaming in War of the Worlds, I would prefer not to see the movie she is in. She overacts and thinks histrionics means good acting.”  All I can say is, if the Martians ever did invade planet earth . . . I’d probably pee my pants and scream like a little girl too.

      “Dakota acts too mature, in every interview she behaves like a miniature adult.” This  common criticism is a case where the haters want to have it both ways. I can only imagine the hue and cry if Dakota were perceived as bratty and spoiled and immature.  Dakota has always possessed a precocious propensity to behave beyond her years. I think for me that was part of her allure, her charm so to speak. Even at eight-years-old, Dakota was poised, a charming and intelligent guest. It was a marvel to watch her hold her own in a conversation with venerable talk-show host Jay Leno. Jay was smitten, and so were we. I know children, I work with children everyday and it is an exceptional child who speaks plainly, a child who is both polite and intelligent is a rare delight and one to be treasured, not derided for their precociousness.

      It’s a cruel fact in Hollywood, that producers, directors and screen-writers like their kids young and cute. Somewhere in the age range of eight to twelve, that is the golden age for child actors. Much beyond that age limit, unless they go to Disney or Nick there are just not that much opportunity for early teens. To make matters worse, when producers DO cast those parts, they usually go with actors much older, playing younger than their years. For example, Jennette McCurdy is 19 playing a 15 year-old! This has many advantages, not the least of which directors are no longer fettered with strict shooting hours for minors. When Dakota shot The Cat in the Hat (2003),  the director would set up all the shots, shoot Mike Myers in total, and only then would the clock start, they’d zoom the kids on set and frantically shoot Breslin and Fanning close-ups, stop the clock, whisk the kids off set.   Set up for the next shot  . . .     
     This brings us to the most scurrilous charge and the one that makes me the angriest. A lot hay was  made a few years back about Dakota and her management and the movie Hounddog (2007). The big lie is that Dakota only took on the role because she “thought” it would garner her Oscar nomination, that Dakota appears naked on screen  and touches a boy's privates.  There is absolutely NO truth to any of this.  A BIG lie, hatched by the "haters" themselves as part of a smear campaign against Dakota in an attempt to sabotage Hounddog.  The miss-information surrounding this movie was  so clouded by preposterous preconceived prejudice and hate-mongering that this little independent film was never able to  secure a national distributor. The facts are, this lie was hatched by people who were influenced by Blue Line Radio who told an equally big lie about Dakota and the final screen content of Hounddog.

      It is true, somewhere between the years 2003-2006 Dakota was as they say the Hollywood "IT" Girl. Time passes, children grow up, and Dakota is for practical purposes an adult. I'm starting to see numerous posts from people who think she’s a thing of the past, a dinosaur like the Olsen twins. Dakota has made choices that weren't as career-propelling as other actresses in her age range. Saoirse Rohan has made some better choices. I don't think this puts Dakota out of the game. Yet I see many posts from people who think she’s over and done with because of a 2-3 year slump in her transitioning phase.

      The awkward years, no longer a cute child, not yet an adult, this is a fearful perfect storm that oftentimes is disastrous undoing to any former child star’s career (Dana Plato comes to mind). Even a venerable child actress of the stature of Jodie Foster was not immune.  Poor Jodie got fat, suffered the unwanted publicity of John Hinckley and then suffered the ultimate humiliation of actually having to do a screen test to land the part of Clarice Starling in Silence of the Lambs (1991). Jodie had the last laugh and went on to win an Oscar.

     Dakota needs a movie, a big movie. She was wonderful in her breakout performance I am Sam (2001) Man on Fire (2005) and Charlotte’s Web (2006). All that success is in the past. Dakota is seventeen now, in a few short months she will be eighteen and free of Hollywood’s self imposed (indeed) all of societies arbitrary restrictions on minors. Dakota will truly be able choose her own path as an adult actress. I personally see nothing but great things ahead for this fine young actress. Dakota will bounce back. Not necessarily as the “it” girl compared with her contemporaries, but undoubtedly she will continue to act all she needs is the right script the right vehicle. Sandra Bullock, Kirsten Dunst and Kiera Knightley will need to move over because Dakota Fanning is in the house!