My dad named me Dakota and my mom came up with my first name Hannah. So it’s Hannah Dakota Fanning.
One of my favorite things about doing movies is that you get to do different things you’d never do in real life.
If I see a movie on TV that I’m in, I usually will watch it for that reason: It’s like I’m watching another person.
I think I was a Japanese schoolgirl in another life. That’s how much I love Hello Kitty.
I never get scared making these kinds of movies because it’s all make-believe, but I did cry when I saw the finished version of Man On Fire because it is so sad.
Is every moment of our lives built into us before we’re born? If it is, does it make us less responsible for the things we do, or is the responsibility built in too?
My mom, she is the most unbelievable mom that you could ever have in your entire life and she’s always with me on everything. The most I’ve ever been away from her is two days. I love her more than anybody could ever know.
People like to examine the things that frighten them, to look at them and give them names, so saints look for god, and scientists look for evidence. They’re both just trying to take away from the mystery, to take away from the fear.
Dear God, I do not ask for health or wealth. People ask you so often that you can’t have any left. Give me, God, what else you have. Give me what no-one else asks for. Amen.
I always talk about my characters like they’re real people.
I have a weird vision of relationships because my parents have known each other since second grade, and they got married right out of college.
I love the feeling I get when I’m on a set; I love reading the scripts, playing the characters, getting to be someone else.
Well, we became a vegetarian. But that didn’t last very long, because, um, I don’t like vegetables. Or salad, nothing like that!
The hardest thing is at the end you have to say bye to all these people who you have worked with for so many months. It was really sad not to see them anymore. But you have the parties that you go to and you get to see them, like the premieres and the screenings.
That was really cool. I got to kiss a little boy. I was 7 and he was 10, and his name is Thomas Curtis. He was the first boy I’ve ever kissed in my entire life and he was three years older than me.
When you’re acting you put so much of yourself into working. As much fun as it is, it’s still hard work and it’s still a challenge.
I can only live my life in this way. I don’t think I would be living it a different way if I wasn’t acting.
People recognize me all the time. I think it’s really nice. I don’t mind it at all. It feels kind of surreal when people know who you are and I think that it’s really cool.
I’ve been able to go so many places. I had the opportunity to go to Hong Kong when I was thirteen years old which is crazy. I lived there for three months. It was amazing. I couldn’t ask for a more enriched life so far.
Sometimes I am kind of the opposite of my character. But that’s the thing about acting, you get to play people who are not like you at all.
You have to be totally one hundred per cent committed to act. I do value everyone else’s advice, but ultimately I have to listen to myself.