Fast chat with 'Coraline'/'Push' star Dakota Fanning

Newsday (MCT) - If a Hollywood movie has needed a young female actress, one who can actually act, the default response for the past few years has been "Dakota Fanning."

You need someone to play Tom Cruise's spunky daughter in "War of the Worlds" (2005)? "Dakota Fanning." Kurt Russell's horse-loving daughter in "Dreamer" (2005)? "Dakota Fanning." Fern in "Charlotte's Web" (2006)? "Yo, Dakota!" We won't mention "The Cat in the Hat," because, after all, mistakes do get made and one does not remain 9 years old forever.

In fact, the willowy blonde Fanning is closing in on 15, has been making her move into bona fide teenage parts _ as an abuse victim in "Hounddog" (2007), as Queen Latifah's surrogate daughter in "The Secret Life of Bees" (2008) and, now, as a psychically superpowered "watcher" in "Push," directed by Paul McGuigan and co-starring Chris Evans. (She also gives voice to the title character in Henry Selick's Claymation tale, "Coraline.")

John Anderson recently sat down with Fanning in Beverly Hills.

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Q. Weren't you recently honored at the Palm Springs Film Festival as its Rising Star of the Year? And haven't you been a "rising star" for some time?

A. (Laughs) Yeah, but I don't mind ... it was so nice. And to be honored and being given an award with some of the people who were there, was fantastic. It was an honor to be there.

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Q. You must be buried in job offers.

A. Yeah, and there are some that work out, the ones that you film, and some that don't, which means they're right for someone else.

Q. Or no one else. How do you pick?

A. I don't know, you know, I don't know exactly. I think when you read the script, something inside of you clicks and says "I really want to do this." After I read "Push," I met with Paul and he said how he wanted to film it and how he wanted it to look and how he wanted the characters to be and how he wanted it to be something people hadn't seen before. I was like "I really want to see this movie, and I want to be in it, too!"

Q. So if it's a movie you want to see, then you want to do it?

A. No, sometimes you want to see a movie, but it's just not right for you to be in it. You have to see all kinds of movies but this one I just thought "I want to be part of something really different."

Q. You have help making these decisions?

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A. Of course I have my mom and my agent and my manager, and they all read everything, as I do, too. Ultimately, though, I'm the one _ you have to put so much of yourself into a project, so I have to be totally drawn to it. But at the same time, of course, I respect those other opinions.

Q. "Push," in which you play Cassie, a psychic manipulated by a shadowy government agency _ this marks a big step for you, no?

A. Yeah, definitely, I'll be 15 in three weeks, I think that I'm well enough into my teens to have transitioned! But yeah. It hasn't been totally planned and technically thought out, but I think you should move on, that you grow up and there are things you can no longer do, but there are so many other opportunities, which is fantastic and which I look forward to.

Q. There are some who would say child acting is more about instinct than craft. You have any thoughts about that as you transition? Are you going to have to change the way you act?

A. I don't think I ever will. I don't know if this is because I started so young, but when I was little they said "action" and it was like I was playing at my house, except there was a camera filming me and I was with other people instead of imagining them. I still think of it like that. And when they say "cut," I'm back to myself. That's just how I've always been. I don't think you should take your characters home with you. I know it works for some people, but not for me. I like to turn it on and off. I don't know if that's because I started when I was 6, but when I was 6 it was like "play time!" Except I took it really seriously.

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Q. Regarding this movie, were you at all familiar with the government psychic experiments that were the inspiration for "Push"?

A. I wasn't and I really didn't research it either, 'cause I don't think Cassie's an expert. She's still really young, trying to learn what her power is. So I didn't want to know too much. She wouldn't know tons of information, either. But yeah, I didn't know that much about. I don't really know that much about it now!

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