The Next Dakota Fanning
An old (March 2008) but very interesting article that analyzes the careers of Dakota Fanning, Abigail Breslin, and AnnaSophia Robb, with former young actress Jodie Foster weighing in on how to morph into a successful adult star. Of course, there's no real need for a "new" Dakota when there's still plenty of talent and potential left in "old" Dakota.
Could Abigail Breslin or AnnaSophia Robb be the next Dakota Fanning? These two young actresses are set to conquer Hollywood before Driver's Ed.
An international sensation by age 9, Dakota Fanning was set to be her generation's greatest young actress. From The Cat in the Hat and Charlotte's Web, to Hide and Seek and War of the Worlds, the ever-grinning headliner seemed to have Hollywood in the palm of her hand. Then, 14 months ago, following the festival debut of a highly controversial film, she vanished from the spotlight. Like a pint-size Keyser Söze - poof! - she was gone.
But every decade needs its own Shirley Temple, Tatum O'Neal or Drew Barrymore. With a "Help Wanted" sign hanging in Hollywood's window, two of the town's most promising young stars are currently handing in their audition tapes.
"This is my first more adult film that's gotten distributed, and I loved doing this movie," 14-year-old AnnaSophia Robb said recently, of starring in her latest film, Sleepwalking, opposite Oscar-winner Charlize Theron. "There are some dark scenes, so [Theron] helped me get down into those dark places, and then be able to come back out of those. I felt like I really grew on this."
For the last several years, Robb has appeared in films like Bridge to Terabithia and Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, often competing for roles with Fanning and other young actresses stuck in her shadow. Sleepwalking cast her as a troubled tween on the lam, navigating the demons of her ancestors and the newfound powers of her femininity.
AnnaSophia Robb in Sleepwalking
"It's gritty and it's dark," Entertainment Weekly writer Tim Stack said, reflecting on Robb's high-profile transition film. "I think it could be a vehicle for her that shows people she's more than just a cute little girl."
In the opposite corner is 11-year-old Abigail Breslin, an Oscar nominee for Little Miss Sunshine who headlines the fantasy film Nim's Island on April 4. "It's about a girl and her dad who live on this island that nobody knows about," explained Breslin, another eager-to-please kid with wise-beyond-her-years composure. "She reads a series of books where Alex Rover is this big adventure hero. Her dad goes away trying to find this new species because he's a marine biologist. She gets an e-mail from Alex Rover, and it actually turns out to be Alexandra Rover, who is an agoraphobic in San Francisco."
Abigail Breslin in Nim's Island
While Robb is going from kiddie fare to adult stuff, Breslin is stepping back across the line. "She's so winning and she's so genuine, and she seems like a really nice girl," Stack explained. "She has picked some iffy movies, but she's incredibly talented, and she's got project after project lined up."
In the meantime, Fanning remains missing in action, while Hollywood explains her absence with one simple word: Hounddog.
A much-hyped drama that premiered at Sundance in 2007 with buzz that Dakota's most adult role yet would surely become Oscar bait, the film instead found itself mired in controversy over her character's rape. After the festival, the film vanished as if it had never existed.
Dakota Fanning in Hounddog
"It was a little scary," Stack recalled. "I prefer my Dakota happy and bouncy, and you know, not being raped."
"It is not an easy thing to navigate," insisted double Oscar-winner and Breslin's Nim's Island co-star Jodie Foster, who began her career with dozens of film and TV appearances before making the move to adulthood with Taxi Driver at age 14. "But if you do, what a rewarding life! To be able to travel at a very young age, to have ideas that you have and to be taken seriously, to have real conversations with adults. It's so confidence-building that it's fantastic."
"My parents definitely help me choose the roles I'm going to be doing," Robb said. "We all give our opinions. Sometimes we don't agree, but it always works out, and I like having their opinions because they have a different perspective than me."
"My mom reads the scripts first, and she'll tell me if I should read it or not," agreed Breslin, who, like Robb, usually has her mother nearby during public appearances. "After I read it, I'll think about if I want to know the character, and then we'll talk about it. If we [both] like it, and if they ask us to do it, then we know."
"Abigail is really enjoying her moment; she loves the work she's doing," Foster said. "She seems to have a great way of repelling pressure, and I'm sure that's a testament to her parents. She has a great head on her shoulders.
Abigail Breslin & Jodie Foster in Nim's Island
"The adolescence part is just an emotional journey, about your body changing and your hormones and being insecure," Foster added, drawing on her own experience. "My mom told me every day when I was a kid, 'What do you want to be when you grow up? Because you know your career will be over by the time you are 16 or 17. So do you want to be a doctor? Do you want to be a lawyer? Do you want to be a balloonist?' She kept throwing different careers at me. I grew up thinking [acting] was a dumb job. It was an interesting way of preparing me for disappointment."
"When I'm done," Breslin beamed, "I would definitely want to be a veterinarian."
"I always need a fallback plan," agreed Robb. "I want to go to college."
So who, exactly, will become the new Dakota Fanning? Well, don't be surprised if it turns out to be ... Dakota Fanning.
"Her performances are so measured, and she does so much without being over-the-top broad," Stack said, explaining that Fanning's Hounddog will finally get its release this summer, followed by the drama Winged Creatures (starring Forest Whitaker and Kate Beckinsale) and next year's The Secret Life of Bees. "This is not a child," Fanning's Bees co-star Jennifer Hudson teased when we visited the set recently. "I call her Mama Dakota, and she's half my age. She's so seasoned, to be so young and so smart. She's such an amazing girl."
"Smart, funny, interesting, level-headed and down to earth," Foster said of Fanning. "And once again, I think it's a real testament to the fact that parents are more involved now. "There's some great careers that I'm looking at that are child actors," Foster grinned. "The cliché that every child actor ends up in an insane asylum with a needle in their arm is over. Hopefully, some of these careers have put that to rest."