Dakota Fanning was asked ‘super-inappropriate questions’ as child star

Dakota Fanning is just 30, but she has decades of experience on sets and promoting projects. She has some stories.

“People would ask super-inappropriate questions,” The Perfect Couple and Ripley star told The Cut about being a child star in a cover story published Tuesday. “I was in an interview as a child and somebody asked, ‘How could you possibly have any friends?’ It’s like, Huh?”

She also recalled being asked, “How are you avoiding becoming a tabloid girl?”

Fanning didn’t have what’s considered to be the typical child-star experience. After she began acting on TV when she was 6, Fanning had a memorable role as Lucy, alongside Sean Penn’s central character in 2001’s I Am Sam. She was still a child when she starred in blockbusters such as 2005’s Wars of the Worlds, with Tom Cruise, and with Denzel Washington in the 2004 movie Man on Fire. She managed to transition gracefully into older roles.

When the interviewer pointed out that “fallen child star” was “one of the tropes of the Hollywood Fame Machine,” Fanning agreed.

“That’s the thing. It’s like, Is that what you want to happen to me somehow? Is that what you want to happen to these people?” she asked. “I’ve definitely felt this kind of vibe from people almost wanting me to fail or something. It makes you feel a little bit guarded. I’m just living my life over here. I think also I was just a little too young for it to fully hit me. So that was good. People couldn’t get away with that kind of thing so much anymore. By the time I got to that age, it was sort of being recognized as probably not the best way to treat people.”

Fanning said she feels for those who did have a tough time in the spotlight at a young age.

“I have a lot of compassion for people who have been made into examples. If society and the media hadn’t played their part, who knows? I don’t think that it’s necessarily connected a hundred percent to being in this business; there are other factors, too,” said Fanning, who this year enjoyed her first Emmy nomination for her role in Ripley.

“I just didn’t fall into it, and I don’t know the exact reasons except that my family is comprised of very nice, kind, protective people,” she continued. “I have a mother who taught me how to treat other people and also how to treat myself. And she was there every second. I was always treated with respect. It was never ‘Bring the kid in! Get her out!’ I wasn’t working with people who treated me that way — I was being respected as an actor and as equal as you can be for that age.”

Not that Fanning’s life is free of the perks that come with celebrity. In June, she revealed on The Kelly Clarkson Show that Cruise sends her the same birthday gift every year.

“I loved shoes when I was little, and I started to be able to fit into really small adult shoes when I was on the War of the Worlds press tour, so I was really excited about them,” Fanning said. “So from that birthday on, he always sends me shoes.”

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