This week’s Take Ten guest is Dakota Fanning. In this episode we chat about her love for Australian TimTam cookies, Tom Cruise’s thanksgiving pie collection and what De Niro taught her about being a scene partner.
Currently starring in Peacock series All Her Fault based on Andrea Mara’s novel, Fanning plays Jenny, a mom who is horrified when a child at her son’s school is kidnapped. When Jenny befriends the missing boy’s mom, Marissa (Sarah Snook), they join together to unravel the mystery and fix their own lives.
During this Take Ten chat, Fanning takes a trip down memory lane recalling all the props she’s kept from her long career that began in childhood. “I have the Creasy bear from Man on Fire,” she says. “They gave that to me at the end. From I Am Sam, I have this little shirt that I wore in a lot of the scenes. I have the yellow dress that I wore as Fern in Charlotte’s Web, in the fair scene. I have a lot of good, important stuff. That tutu from Uptown Girls. I don’t know if I have that. It could be in storage. I wish I had that, if I don’t, but I might.”
She also takes a fond look back on a very special holiday experience she had while shooting the 2005 movie War of the Worlds with Steven Spielberg and Tom Cruise.
“I remember we were going away for the Thanksgiving break,” Fanning says. “It was like, ‘That’s a wrap. Have a great Thanksgiving, everyone.’ And then these huge doors opened to another studio, and there were just 2000 pies in this empty soundstage. Just tables and tables of pies that Steven and Tom had brought in for the crew for a little Thanksgiving send-off. And I was like, ‘Wow, it’s a lot of pies!’”
The kind gesture made a big impression on her. “It set me up to realize how important doing special things for the crew that you’re working with is, and how far that goes, and to show appreciation and to celebrate the work that people are doing.”
As for her most memorable co-star though, Fanning finds it impossible to pick just one. Although that could change very soon. “If you ask me this in a year, it’ll probably be my sister. We’re doing a movie together, so she’ll probably end up being my most memorable co star, but we haven’t done it yet.” That movie in which the Fanning sisters will co-star and also co-produce is The Nightingale, adapted from Kristin Hannah’s novel.
But in the meantime, while Fanning is mulling over those memorable co-stars, she points out, “When I was on Charlotte’s Web, I worked with a lot of pigs and cows and sheep and geese. That was memorable.”
To find out the list of movies Fanning likes to rewatch with her sister, the music that always puts her in a good mood, the De Niro story, and the fan feedback she’s had on her All Her Fault character, click on the video above.
All Her Fault is currently streaming on Peacock.