Q&A with DAKOTA FANNING: "I'm more of a shower singer when no one is home, the door is closed and the shower is loud enough."

CREDIT Fanning as Cherie Currie and Kristen Stewart as Joan Jett in The Runaways.

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Q&A with DAKOTA FANNING: "I'm more of a shower singer when no one is home, the door is closed and the shower is loud enough."

POSTED: Friday, March 19, 2010, 1:51 PM

Filed Under: Interview | Movies | Music

CREDIT

Fanning as Cherie Currie and Kristen Stewart
as Joan Jett in The Runaways.

Dakota Fanning is one of the most poised teenagers I've ever talked to -- either insanely mature for a 16-year-old or well-coached in the ways of PR spin. But she lets loose in The Runaways (opens today, see Shaun Brady's review), the biopic of the titular girl band, playing corseted teen sex pot singer Cherie Currie. Fanning talked with City Paper about playing a real person, shower singing and who she is rooting for on American Idol.

City Paper: You're in a really weird spot as an actress now, going from child star to fully-realized human being. Why did you choose The Runaways as a part of this transition?

Dakota Fanning: I thought the story had so much to offer and it was such a challenge for me and to play a real person was such a challenge in and of itself. The subject matter is pretty intense. But I really loved that Cherie was actually 15 when she went through this and I was 15 when we made the movie. It just seemed the thing to do: It was the perfect mix of something different that I've never done before and kind of things that people not expect from me.

CP: You talk about the challenges of playing a real person. All the tabloid fodder focused on Joan Jett and Kristen Stewart's relationship. What was your relationship like with Cherie?

DF: It was amazing. Cherie is such an unbelievable person. We have a really close relationship, she's become really close with my family and I've become close with her. She's just a really complex, strong, wonderful woman and it's really an honor to player her bring her story to people who didn't know her story before.

CP: I've seen videos of the Runaways perform and you move just like her.

DF: The "Cherry Bomb" performance was actually a choreographed dance that she did. And to actually learn part of it from her was so special and to have her there to re-live that time in her life. It was really amazing to watch and it was a huge honor for me to be able to give that to her again.

CP: There's definitely a benefit to having the person that you're playing there. But did you think there was a bias in any way toward Cherie and Joan Jett because they were there and had such a hand in the film?

DF: Well, the movie was produced by Joan and it was based on Cherie's book. They were the ones who wanted to be wanted to involved. I don't really know the specifics on everybody else. The other people weren't on the set like Joan and Cherie were. But it probably would have been different because you can't put everything into the movie. You have to pick and choose what can be pulled.

CP: One of the things about the Runaways that I loved was it totally brought me back to be 15 and hearing "Cherry Bomb" for the first time. Just like, jumping on my bed and screaming that song. I figure this is an experience that most teenage girls have; when they find that passion for music, they sing into their hairbrush to get the teenage ya-yas out. When it comes to your own experience, are you a hair brush singer? A shower singer? What's your mode for rocking out?

DF: For me, singing has always been something that I've guarded with my life. I'm really self-conscious about it — in front of my family, in front of my friends. I try to sing as softly as I can when a bunch of people are in the car and the music's playing. But I found that doing it in the movie, I can do it playing someone else. But when it's me, on my own, I'm a little nervous about it. I would say I'm more of a shower singer when no one is home, the door is closed and the shower is loud enough.

CP: Do you have any specific tunes that you go for when you're belting in the shower? You make sure you're all alone, shower's really loud, what are you singing?

DF: It changes all the time. I watch American Idol and I found the person that I like that week, that becomes my shower song for the week.

CP: I'm a huge Idol fan too. Who are you rooting for this season?

DF: I just love Crystal Bowersox with all my heart and soul.

CP: So you're definitely not a live singer, but it's the character that gives you the confidence to sing in front of other people?

DF: I think so. I've been an actor for so long that I'm used to taking a backseat to the character during the takes, during the scenes. It's obviously me. A lot of people would say it's the character, but it's obviously me doing it. But it is a different thing when you are playing someone else. You feel like they're with you and it's not all on you. Especially with Cherie there. When I was doing "Cherry Bomb" her family was there. Just seeing her gave me the confidence and the courage to do it the best I could for her.

CP: You're doing it for her, rather than for you.

DF: Oh yeah. This whole movie is for her. Like I said, a lot of people don't know her story and the story of her career or exactly who she is. It was my responsibility to bring her to those people. Because she is my friend and she means so much to me, I want to do the absolute best that I can.

CP: One of the reasons Cherie had such magnetism was because, as Michael Shannon [as mad impressario Kim Fowley] says in the movie, she's Bridgette Bardot with a kick-your-ass sneer. How did you work to balance the two parts of her personality?

DF: I think that's who Cherie is. She's such a badass but, at the same time, she has such an innocence about her, even today. That's why she why was able to do what she was able to do. She was able to wear a corset and being super girly but she was growling the songs and making people like it who didn't want to like it. She was going to make you like her songs. She was going to make you like her. She emulated David Bowie and that's how she got her confidence and her attitude on stage. You have to mix it with that vulnerability and that innocence that I kind of see behind her eyes. When I was watching those Live in Japan videos before I started filming, and especially once you meet her you can see that mixture. That's why she was perfect to be the lead singer of this band and became so iconic and was so good.

The Runaways opens today at UA Riverview.

Josh

Posted 2010-03-19 09:46:16

Wow. Dakota grew up. She has boobs! Little ones, but they're boobs.

Felicia D'Ambrosio

Posted 2010-03-22 09:39:10

Awesome interview!

Posted by Molly Eichel @ 1:51 PM Permalink | Post a comment

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Featuring everything from event roundups to concert reviews and sex talk, City Paper's Critical Mass is a space for off-the-wall coverage of Philly's A&E scene.

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