Dakota Fanning Interview, Secret Life of Bees

MoviesOnline had the pleasure of sitting down with Dakota Fanning at the Toronto International Film Festival to talk about her new movie, “The Secret Life of Bees,” written for the screen and directed by Gina Prince-Bythewood based upon the award-winning novel by Sue Monk Kidd. The film also stars Alicia Keys, Queen Latifah, Jennifer Hudson, and Sophie Okonedo, a powerhouse ensemble of women from the world of music and film.

“The Secret Life of Bees” is the touching story about the need for love, sisterhood and redemption that explores the undeniable desire for a sense of belonging and the often daunting journeys that we must navigate to achieve it. Set in South Carolina, the home of the intelligent and independent honeymaking Boatwright sisters (Latifah, Keys and Okonedo) is suddenly thrust into upheaval with the arrival of fourteen-year-old Lily Owens (Fanning) and her caretaker Rosaleen (Hudson).

Surrounded by the unexpected comforts, grace and deep rooted spirituality Lily encounters in the Boatwright home, she soon forms a maternal bond with each of these women whose unique and special gifts help reconcile the loss of her mother. Through the strength and female empowerment that embodies the Boatwright sisters, Lily ultimately comes to the realization that sometimes you must leave home in order to find it.

Dakota Fanning is a fabulous person and we really appreciated her time. Here’s what she had to tell us:

Q: How is your festival experience going?

DAKOTA FANNING: It is going great.

Q: Were you a fan of the book?

DAKOTA FANNING: Yeah, I read the book awhile ago because I’ve been attached to this movie for almost four years and we finally made it. I read the book quite a while ago before it was filmed and then I read it a few weeks ago this summer. It was just the same, but better.

Q: Are you close to the age of the character in the book now, closer than you were when you signed on for the film?

DAKOTA FANNING: Yeah, I’m 14 now so I’m the same age as the character, but when I first signed on I was 10 or 11, but it wasn’t being made at that time like that soon so they were waiting for that and I was waiting to get older so I could play Lily.

Q: Was this your first onscreen romance? What was that like?

DAKOTA FANNING: It wasn’t my first, but it kind of was one of the more serious ones I’ve played in a movie it was great because Tristan was the nicest guy and we knew each other pretty well by the time we filmed that toward the end. That was a really fun storyline because it was almost a forbidden love between both of our characters like we were having feelings for each other, but we couldn’t express them. We had to fear for our own safety or for his safety. It was a fun relationship to have especially with such a nice guy.

Q: How did you learn about the 60s and this time period?

DAKOTA FANNING: I’m from the south and my grandmother grew up during this time period in the south and she was kind of my research and she lives with my family and me so she was my research all the time.

Q: Was there any one thing she told you that crystallized things for you?

DAKOTA FANNING: She grew up in a really small town in the south and she was helped raised by black women like in the movie and her dad actually adopted an African American boy during that time and so she grew up with him from the time that they were little so her family was not like the people you see portrayed in the movie. Her father was also the sheriff of that town so he was always involved in a lot of the issues that went on during that. It was really hard. It was great to have her to tell stories to me and talk about things.

Q: Did they encounter the kind of bigotry we see in the film?

DAKOTA FANNING: Yeah, I mean they definitely did. It was a part of everyday life. She didn’t understand it but it still was there and I’m glad that this movie can shed light upon that so people that weren’t around like myself during that time will always remember and never forget the suffering that some people went through just because of such a small thing as color.

Q: Did you do this before or after Hound Dog? Did you do research for both at the same time since these were filmed at the same time?

DAKOTA FANNING: I filmed Hound Dog two years ago so it was different. But still my grandmother grew up during that time too.

Q: They are very different characters …

DAKOTA FANNING: It is true. It is actually a very similar period, but very different characters, very different stories.

Q: What is your preparation process? You have said in the past you like preparing for the emotional scenes.

DAKOTA FANNING: I think as an actor this was almost a dream come true character for me to play, because she goes through every range of emotion that you could go through and it is almost fun, I hate to say fun, but it is a fun challenge to dig deep within a character and kind of conjure up these emotions that maybe I’ll never feel in my lifetime so that’s what I love about acting. I don’t do a lot of technical preparation or formal preparation. It is just kind of on the set and everything just the sets and the people and the story are my preparation.

Q: Was this a challenging role?

DAKOTA FANNING: I always say that they are a challenge because you are never playing yourself you are always playing someone different so you can never fall back on your own personality, kind of you are always playing somebody that is a different character and you always have to keep that in mind so they are all a challenge. Sure, there are the more emotional scenes or the scenes where you are working with bees or anything like that those are always challenging, but they are all still a challenge and how you are thinking of that other person’s faults.

Q: Did you have special training to work with the bees?

DAKOTA FANNING: Yeah, me, Tristan and Latifah.  We all went to bee school and we trained with a beekeeper named Mr. Rudin and he was amazing. We couldn’t have done it without him.  He taught us everything we know. He taught us all about how to handle the bees and it was a really fun experience. I was always fully protected so that helped too. I have never been stung by a bee before, never in my life.

Q: And you did not get stung making this movie?

DAKOTA FANNING: I did not.

Q: What about that scene where you lick the honey off Tristan’s finger?

DAKOTA FANNING: It was an empty hive, so there were some bees around but it wasn’t like bees, bees. I don’t know if they would have allowed me to do it maybe because I had my net off and you should always have your net on when you are dealing with six hundred thousand bees that are in one hive and there are 12 hives.

Q: You have another movie coming out with Jennifer Hudson. Do you have scenes together in that movie too?

DAKOTA FANNING: No, we have totally different story lines in that movie. We didn’t even meet there.

Q: You made that before this one?

DAKOTA FANNING: Yes. I did that one before. We met one time a month or two before we filmed. I hadn’t met any other cast members before we got there and we all just kind of bonded the first time we met. We felt like we’d known each other forever and that really helped in the movie and we really clicked.

Q: Are you back at school?

DAKOTA FANNING: Yeah, I started school Thursday.

Q: Are you going to private school or home school?

DAKOTA FANNING: I go to a private high school in California where I live, in L.A. I started 10th grade on Thursday and yeah, it’s great. Last year was my first year of school. I went to preschool and first grade and then I was home schooled from second grade to eighth grade.

Q: Is it new and different to you?

DAKOTA FANNING: Not at all. I feel like I’ve been there forever and I really enjoy every minute of it.

Q: How does it affect your work schedule? Did you have to take time off?

DAKOTA FANNING: No, I did this movie during the school year. Earlier this year in my ninth grade year and it worked out great. I take my work with me and I have a teacher who oversees it when I’m working and it worked out perfectly. It allowed me to do what I love to do.

Q: What about Push? I saw the panel at Comic Con.

DAKOTA FANNING: I was in the car.

Q: Can you talk about the role because it is a very different role.

DAKOTA FANNING: Yeah, I filmed Push before Secret Life of Bees. The first week of October to the second week of December I was in Hong Kong and then I had Christmas and New Years and then I went to North Carolina, so I think it was the biggest contrast possible between the two movies. They were both equally as fun because the characters were polar opposites. Push was really fun to film because it was different than anything we had done before. The cast was incredible and the director Paul McGuigan is insanely talented and just so visual. I’ve seen the film and it is really exciting.

“The Secret Life of Bees” opens in theaters on October 17th.