Dakota Fanning is 30 now and has an acting career almost just as long. She has acted in films such as War of the Worlds, Uptown Girls, Equalizer and many more. She even won the Broadcast Film Critics Association’s Best Young Actor/Actress award in 2001 for her role in Sean Penn-starrer I am Sam. She beat the likes of Haley Joel Osment and Daniel Radcliffe to clinch the trophy. Dakota was 7 at the time. (Also read: Couldn’t have asked for a better co-star: Dakota Fanning on working with Andrew Scott in Ripley)
However, when it came delivering the speech after the win, Dakota faced an issue: she was too little to reach the mic! Thankfully, Lords of the Ring and Pirates of the Caribbean star Orlando Bloom was the presenter of the award. He quickly came to Dakota’s rescue and hoisted her up to the mic.
Dakota’s impressive speech
Dakota then delivered a speech far more mature than any other 7-year-old could have managed. “I wasn’t expecting this. Hi. Thank you. Well, first of all, I just want to thank everybody who got me here. It took a lot of people to and I guess really appreciate everybody. First of all, I want to thank God for all the things that he has given me and the best agent in the entire world. I want to thank the Broadcast Film Critics Association for letting me be nominated with Haley Joel Osment and Daniel Radcliffe. I just, I am so excited to be here tonight. And I want to thank my mom and my dad and my little sister Elle for everything. And I just wanted to thank, again the Broadcast Film Critics Association for everything I really appreciate it,” she said. The audience laughed and cheered through it all.
In 2008, Dakota was asked about the episode when she said, “I met him again later on the set of ‘War of the Worlds’ and we talked and had a laugh about it,” Fanning told Pop Tarts at the Hollywood Foreign Press Association Luncheon that year. “It was funny, but I’m actually a bit embarrassed thinking about it now.”
Dakota in Ripley
Dakota is currently seen on Netflix series Ripley with Andrew Scott. The series is based on the enduring character created by novelist Patricia Highsmith in The Talented Mr. Ripley. It premiered April 4. “I was so excited by getting to communicate so much with micro-movements in the face and a look — that thing where you can read someone’s thoughts through their eyes,” says Dakota Fanning, who plays the suspicious girlfriend of the rich dilettante Dickie Greenleaf.
