Dakota Fanning Does ‘Marie Claire’ Magazine

Dakota Fanning, who currently stars in the sequel film The Twilight Saga: Eclipse, is featured on the cover and in the pages of the new issue of Marie Claire magazine. In her coverstory interview, Dakota opens up about her work in The Runaways and in Twilight and addresses the way that audiences see her in these films. Here is our first look at Dakota‘s MC coverphoto and some excerpts from the coverstory article:

All in a moment, Fanning went from being an adorable if talented “child star” to the full-fledged genuine article, and critics took notice. Reviewing The Runaways in The New York Times, A.O. Scott gushed: “Ms. Fanning, who has shown herself a remarkably disciplined and self-aware actress almost since toddlerhood, displays heartbreaking vulnerability as well as frightening poise.” The Denver Post called her performance “uncorked.” The message was unmistakable: She had popped … One lasting friendship to emerge from the experience was with Kristen Stewart, the 20-year-old Twilight lead who played Joan Jett to Fanning’s Currie. According to both young women, re-enacting the intimate friendship between Jett and Currie brought them close instantly, and a mutual respect has kept them that way. “Dakota is so unfaultingly steady,” Stewart says. “In most cases, I feel like she’s older than me. It’s only when she starts talking about boys that I remember how young she is.” (No, Fanning doesn’t have a boyfriend. So far, she says, there has been “nothing serious.”) The two, who briefly shared the screen in Twilight: New Moon, reunited in this summer’s Eclipse, the third installment of the series, with Fanning reprising her role as a diminutive child vampire in a long cape and Mary Janes … Sixteen is an age of ambivalence, a time of lingering on the threshold of adulthood with one foot safely in the realm of childhood. Some of Fanning’s recent choices seem calculated to project the message that she is no longer the wise child who debuted opposite Sean Penn’s mentally disabled character in I Am Sam when she was 6 … To her astonishment, people seemed not to be able to distinguish between the real Dakota Fanning, then 13, and her character on-screen. “When you start out young, people get really attached to who you are at 6 years old,” Fanning says. “I hope that The Runaways was kind of a moment to be like, ‘You know, I’m not that young little girl anymore, but I’m still not all grown up, either.’” There is a deliberate, patient rhythm to her ambition; right now she’s looking for a project to do with her sister, who’s 12 and is about to appear in Sofia Coppola’s Somewhere, due out later this year. Fanning is on the brink, and she knows it … “As you get older, there’s so much more that you can do in films,” she says. “I’ve never wanted to rush that; I’ve always wanted to do what’s right for my age, but as you approach 18, a whole new world opens up to you as an actor, and I really look forward to that.”

IMHO, not only is Dakota hugely talented but she is also a very bright young woman. When you see someone like Lindsay Lohan, who could’ve been a huge success had she not pissed away every chance she got with her reckless and irresponsible behavior, and then you see Dakota Fanning in comparison you can understand that not every child star succumbs to “dangers of Hollywood”. It is a pleasure to watch Dakota grow up and continue to find success with each new project. At such a young age, the sky is the limit … she seems smart enough to understand that and take full advantage of the opportunities that come her way. After the jump, check out one more photo from Dakota‘s new Marie Claire photoshoot …

To be honest, I still see the little 6 year old in Dakota Fanning … maybe I have been conditioned to only see her in that way or maybe it’s just a matter that she still maintains a lot of her babyfaced innocence … so I get how come folks can be weirded out by some of the roles she takes on. But as long as she remains true to herself and keeps making the right kind of smart decisions, she will be fine. She’s a great actress … I’m confident that we’ve only just seen the tip of the ice berg where her talent is concerned.

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