Dakota Fanning used to get turned down for jobs because she was "different looking".
Dakota Fanning
Despite starring in some of the world's biggest films since she was six, the 22-year-old actress admits she had to deal with a lot of rejections when it came to commercials.
She said: "I was always able to decipher what mattered from what didn't. I would go on so many commercial auditions and I would hardly ever get them, because they would always pick the girl with the really long hair. I had short hair and was different looking. And I would say, 'You know, they probably just really wanted someone with brown hair, or longer hair.' And my mum would say, 'You're probably right.'"
Unlike a lot of former child stars, Dakota has managed to maintain a stable personal life and credits her grounded upbringing for that.
The 'American Pastoral' star told the Guardian newspaper: "My parents, even before I started doing this, were the kind of parents who expected a certain behaviour and focus in life. Manners were important and so was respect for adults: that was taught to me from birth. And that became a sense of professionalism, as I started to understand the decorum of movie sets: have respect for the people who are trying to help you. When you're a kid, you are so impressionable. And you're soaking up the focus of the set."
She also revealed that she's been working on movie sets for so long that the technical requirements have become second nature to her.
She said: "I know how to hit a mark without looking. I instinctively know where my eye line should be. That's all 100 per cent. But your character and the story are always different, so the emotional part is not muscle memory. You're still surprised by stuff and get the adrenaline."
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