Dakota Fanning has revealed that she was asked “inappropriate” questions when she was a child star in Hollywood.
The 30-year-old actress began her professional career at age five, starring in small roles for TV shows like ER and CSI: Crime Scene Investigation.
Two years later, Fanning rose to prominence after playing Sean Penn's daughter in the film I Am Sam (2001). She then made history as the youngest person ever to be nominated for a Screen Actors Guild Award, being seven years of age at the time.
The now 30-year-old actress, who has starred in more than 44 movies since the age of six, has been reflecting on the interactions she had as a child star growing up in the spotlight.
Speaking to The Cut, Fanning said the tabloids' obsession with stars Britney Spears, Lindsay Lohan, and Drew Barrymore was “deeply shoved down my throat".
“In interviews at a young age, I remember journalists asking me, ‘How are you avoiding becoming a tabloid girl?’ People would ask super-inappropriate questions,” she said. “I was in an interview as a child and somebody asked, ‘How could you possibly have any friends?’ It’s like, huh?”
The Watchers actress expressed “compassion for people who have been made into examples” and opened up about how she avoided the toxicity as a young person in Hollywood.
“I don’t think that it’s necessarily connected a hundred percent to being in this business; there are other factors, too," she said. "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.”
Instead of being homeschooled like other actors, the Uptown Girls star enrolled at a high school.
“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,” she told the outlet.
The Perfect Couple actress went on to credit her mother, Hannah Joy Arrington, for protecting her from the dark side of the industry, and teaching her “how to treat other people and also how to treat myself".
“And she was there every second,” Fanning continued. “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.”
Fanning's younger sister, Elle, also got her start in Hollywood at a young age.
She played a younger version of Dakota's character in I Am Sam," and also appeared in Babel, The Curious Case of Benjamin Button, Super 8, and Maleficent movies.
The siblings are planning to release a film adaptation of Paris Hilton's 2023 memoir under their company and A24.
Fanning told The Cut that they "are both excited about it and getting to know Paris in a very real way," adding: "It's so wild because we grew up in her heyday - which, I mean, has she ever really not had a heyday? We're still living in it."