Happy birthday to Dakota Fanning, who is official sweet sixteen today! Though she celebrated her birthday in high Beverly Hills style Saturday night, now Dakota is officially 16 which means honestly, absolutely nothing. After all, when has age ever stopped her before?
Click on the photo below to see Dakota's career evolve throughout the years and keep reading to discover how she created such an impressive filmography for herself!
In fact, turning 17 will probably be a bigger deal for the young actress as it will mark a decade of her influence in Hollywood. Dakota became the youngest person ever, at age seven, to be nominated for a Screen Actors Guild Award for her role opposite Sean Penn in "I Am Sam." Though she didn't win (she lost to Helen Mirren in "Gosford Park"), such a big honor for Dakota's first ever film role foreshadowed the trajectory of her career since.
Trading in the heavy drama for typical child-actor roles, Dakota moved from a few supporting roles in 2002 (she played a young Reese Witherspoon in "Sweet Home Alabama," if you'll remember) to leading roles in 2003. She starred opposite the late Brittany Murphy in "Uptown Girls" and opposite Mike Meyers in "The Cat and the Hat."
But it didn't take long for her to return to dramatic work, and garnered some pretty serious costars while she was at it. She starred opposite Denzel Washington in 2004, opposite Robert De Niro and Kurt Russell, Tom Cruise and Glenn Close in 2005. She did her last typical child-actor film in 2006 with "Charlotte's Web." In every situation, her established costars commented in interviews about their awe of her young talent. Kurt even said, "I guarantee you, [Dakota] is the best actress I will work with in my entire career."
The transition to adult actor was a bit abrupt for audiences used to seeing Dakota in family-friendly roles when her 2007 film "Hounddog" was released. It received a lot of heat because the script called for the then-13-year-old Dakota to appear in a rape scene (only her face and reaction were shown in the film).
In the years since, Dakota has certainly grown out of her child looks and, even though she is only 16, definitely looks the adult part. Her roles in Summit Entertainment's 2009 films "Push" and "The Twilight Saga: New Moon" were her first theatrical films where she looked all grown up, and audiences and filmmakers are responding to her still. She is listed as having a role in "New Moon's" sequel, "Eclipse," which hits theaters in June, and is also starring alongside her "Twilight" buddy Kristen Stewart in March's "The Runaways."
So at age 16, Dakota has made the big transition to child star to teen adult actor without losing her impressive forward momentum. Though she still has two years to legality and five years till she's allowed to take those birthday parties to the bar (legally), Dakota should pat herself on the back for becoming one of the biggest names in Hollywood before she could even get her driver's license.
You can wish Dakota a happy birthday in the comments section below!
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