Dakota Fanning thrilled to play baddie in “The Twilight Saga: New Moon”
Dakota Fanning plays the intimidating vampire Jane in the sequel “The Twilight Saga: New Moon,” opening Friday. Jane is a member of the Volturi coven, who act as a sort of royal law enforcement squad for the vampire world.
A version of this story appears in Wednesday’s Life section of The Oklahoman.
Fanning the fangs
Dakota Fanning sank her teeth into ‘New Moon’ role as bad vampire
LOS ANGELES — Teenage movie star Dakota Fanning conceals her familiar pale blue eyes behind sinister scarlet lenses and swaps her usual broad smile for a stony stare in her new film, the eagerly awaited sequel “The Twilight Saga: New Moon.”
“I think the highlight of playing Jane was getting to wear that costume and to have the red contact lenses — I was really excited about that – and getting to play an evil character,” Fanning said in a recent press conference at the lush Four Seasons Hotel in Los Angeles.
Fanning, 15, plays one of the most formidable vampires in the supernaturally popular “Twilight Saga.” A deceptively innocent-looking character, Jane has the power to inflict intense pain on others simply by willing it. She uses her ability eagerly and often as an enforcer for the Volturi coven, the closest the vampire world has to a royal family.
“Dakota is the most feared out of all the Volturi. She’s the one with the worst power,” said Cameron Bright, who plays Jane’s twin brother, Alec, in the press conference. “We’re the henchmen. We kind of do what they (the Volturi leaders) say. For me, as Alec, I’m the only one that isn’t quite afraid of her but I still am. Like I’m not afraid to say what I want, where everybody else is always kind of watching their words.”
Fanning broke out with her acclaimed performance in the 2001 drama “I Am Sam” and has since accumulated 40 TV and movie credits. But “New Moon” offered the petite blonde a chance to take on a new kind of role.
“It was fun to get to play a feared character, you know, something different than what I’ve done before. And also, she uses her power not for good, which was another thing that was kind of interesting to me,” she said.
“We had to tone Dakota down. She was too evil. Her natural personality is too evil and we had to tone the volume down on the evil,” joked co-star Michael Sheen, who plays Volturi leader Aro.
Putting in the crimson contact lenses that mark Jane as a vampire who consumes human blood helped the young actress get into the role.
“It’s really scary. I think it makes anyone look automatically evil,” she said. “It was really fun. You get used to them after a while. You can see pretty good, but it’s still kind of weird.”
Like scores of other teenage girls, Fanning considers herself a fervent fan of the “Twilight” series. She loved the first movie and read all four of Stephenie Meyer’s books in about a week. But she wasn’t starstruck when she met Robert Pattinson, Kristen Stewart and the rest of the “Twilight” cast. After all, she has worked with the likes of Robert De Niro, Sean Penn and Denzel Washington.
“They were just so nice and so welcoming, and just a really great cast,” she said of her fellow “New Moon” actors. “So, it was kind of hard to be star struck even though you’re such big fans of them and excited to meet them.”
Fanning already has reprised her villainous “New Moon” role in the third movie, “The Twilight Saga: Eclipse,” which wrapped at the end of October. In between the “Twilight” sequels, she got to work again with Stewart, who plays series heroine Bella Swan, in “The Runaways,” the biopic of the seminal ‘70s all-girl rock band. Fanning portrays lead singer Cherie Currie, while Stewart plays guitarist Joan Jett.
“We became really good friends and really close throughout all the experiences we’ve had this year. I couldn’t ask for a better person to do three movies in a row with than her,” Fanning said of her co-star.
Though she stays busy with her acting career, Fanning has made it a priority to make the most of her school days. She is a junior at Campbell Hall, a private Episcopal school in North Hollywood, and was recently crowned homecoming princess.
“I thought it was really important to have the high school experience. It was something that I wanted.
“I think it’s really great to have that balance of like a completely normal life and then a completely abnormal life. I really didn’t see a reason why I wouldn’t be able to do both, and I was lucky that I was able to go to a school that lets me leave and everything,” she said. “I don’t know if there’s a ‘how to’ guide as to how I balance it. It just kind of has happened, and I have really great friends and great family and the best of both.”
-BAM
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