30 Interesting And Awesome Facts About Dakota Fanning

Hannah Dakota Fanning, born February 23, 1994, is an American actress and model. She rose to prominence at the age of seven for her performance as Lucy Dawson in the drama movie I Am Sam, for which she received a Screen Actors Guild Award nomination at age eight, making her the youngest nominee in SAG history. Take a look below for 30 more interesting and awesome facts about Dakota Fanning.

1. Fanning played major roles in the movies Uptown Girls, The Cat in the Hat, Man on Fire, War of the Worlds, Dreamer and Charlotte’s Web.

2. As she got older, she took on more mature roles, playing Lawellen in Hounddog, Lily in The Secret Life of Bees, the eponymous character in Coraline, Cherie Currie in The Runaways, and Jane Volturi in The Twilight Saga.

3. Fanning’s more recent movies include the teen drama Now Is Good, the drama Night Moves, the comedy drama Very Good Girls, the biography Effie Gray, the western thriller Brimstone, and the upcoming heist comedy Ocean’s 8.

4. Fanning made her modelling debut in 2009 when she featured on the cover of fashion magazines Elle, Vanity Fair and Cosmopolitan, among others.

5. She appeared in the fashion week in New York in 2014, and at the opening ceremony of Fashion Week New York S/S 2015.

6. Fanning was born in Conyers, Georgia. She went to Montessori School of Covington.

7. Her mother, Heather Joy, played tennis professionally, and her father, Steven J. Fanning, played minor league baseball and now works as an electronics salesman in Los Angeles, California.

8. Her maternal grandfather is former American football player Rick Arrington, and her aunt is former ESPN reporter Jill Arrington.

9. Dakota’s younger sister, Elle Fanning, is also an actress.

10. She learned to read at the age of two.

11. When she received the Best Young Actress award from the Broadcast Film Critics Association for her performance in I Am Sam, she was too short to reach the microphone to give her acceptance speech. Presenter Orlando Bloom held her up to the mic for the duration of her speech, which turned out to be quite long.

12. Fanning began her acting career at the age of five when she was picked for a Tide detergent commercial.

13. Her favorite movies include Gone with the Wind, Steel Magnolias and Titanic.

14. She collected dolls when she was younger.

15. Fanning was schooled at home and on sets by her tutor, but she joined high school in her freshman year.

16. Fanning is an Anglicized form on the Gaelic Fionn, meaning “fair”, and may have Norman roots from the Viking invasion of northern France. Her mother’s maiden name, Arrington, has links to the east of England, notable Cambridgeshire.

17. She donated many signed items to Rocky Stone to be given away as prizes in a Dakota Fanning Contest to benefit less fortunate kids as part of the Toy Mountain Campaign 2005 and Toy Mountain Campaign 2006.

18. The first time she visited England was on June 19, 2005 with Tom Cruise, to attend the premiere of War of the Worlds at London’s Leicester Square.

19. She loves to knot and has knitted scarfs for Tom Cruise, Robert De Niro, Denzel Washington, Oprah Winfrey, Steven Spielberg and Tim Robbins.

20. For the sad scenes in I Am Sam, she thought of her pet goldfish, Flounder, dying.

21. She carried a book of baby names with her wherever she went as a child.

22. On her eleventh birthday, Tom Cruise gave her a cell phone.

23. Fanning is a member of the Girl Scouts USA, and her sister Elle Fanning is a Brownie

24. She missed the premiere of Lilo & Stitch 2: Stitch Has a Glitch to go to Mexico while her sister, Elle Fanning, filmed Babel.

25. After filming Dreamer: Inspired by a True Story, Kurt Russell, who plays her father, bought her a palomino horse, whom she named Goldie. Goldie lives on a ranch near Fanning’s home, where she can visit him often.

26. Her scene in Nine Lives was done in just one take. She was only required to work on this movie for one day.

27. On her tenth birthday, Robert De Niro gave her a doll that looked like her character in Hide and Seek, with the brown hair and blue eyes.

28. Dakota has been in three productions with her sister Elle Fanning, yet they have never shared scenes. Elle played the younger version of Dakota’s character in I Am Sam and Taken, and the two girls voiced sisters in a dub for My Neighbor Totoro.

29. While she was filming Man on Fire in Mexico, her sister Elle Fanning was filming The Door in the Floor, so their parents had to go to and from their daughters’ destinations.

30. She is a huge fan of U.S. designer Belle of the Ball. She has worn many Belle of the Ball dresses to events such as the Hide and Seek premiere.

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