Dakota Fanning Talks HoundDog

Although Hound Dog is billed as a drama I have a hard time with that. Its a drama sure but it also contains a scene of a 12 year old being raped, played by Dakota Fanning. The film has been called Child Porn by advocates and just about every family organization you can think of seems to have an opinion on the film. I really cant fault them for this. Although I can tolerate very gruesome horror movies I can not tolerate children having sex on the big screen implied or otherwise. Much less a child rape scene. The sheer thought of it does turn my stomach. 

I am confident the film makers did not set out to make child porn or a movie that would never be seen and offend large portions of the population. I believe they set out to make a movie that asks hard questions and gives even harder answers. The issue lies however in the choice to have an apparent very graphic rape scene left in the film. You then go from telling a very hard story to what many call child porn and exploitation. We caught up with Dakota Fanning at Comic Con and she had a quick comment for us on the film and its negative response at SunDance;

I think a lot of the information that was out there wasn't true and so I think that people were going into the movie with a lot of preconceived notions about what it was going to be and I don't think it fulfilled what everyone thought that particular part of the movie was going to be. It was very unfortunate and very disappointing.

I think that movie, I really loved making it and I got to work with Robin Wright Penn and David Morse and I got a great experience. I do really hope that people get to see that one day. I hope that people can go with an open mind and an unbiased opinion and watch it and enjoy it. If not, everyone likes different kinds of things.

The trailer for Hound Dog you can watch below. Dakota and other cast members have defended the movie saying that child abuse is a fact world wide. But does that mean showing the explicit rape of a 12 year old girl on screen is ok? Having not seen the film we dont know if its implied or shown completely but its safe to say the controversy is not being put down easily. The film is currently planned for a limited release next spring.