‘Who are they taking a picture of ?’

Dakota Fanning has a light-hearted approach to fame and the paparazzi as, after almost two decades in the industry, she is embracing acting as much as ever with her new role in The Alienist, a limited series about a serial killer in 19th century Manhattan

DAKOTA FANNING IS a grownup. The actress, who was only 6 when she made her debut in an episode of ER back in 2000, and who went on to earn a reputation as one of Hollywood’s best and most-grounded child stars, will turn 24 next month.

Now here she is, 18 years and dozens of films and shows after ER, and one thing hasn’t changed in the slightest: Fanning embraces acting as much as ever. “I still love it, I really do,” she said, speaking by telephone from her family’s house in Los Angeles. “I’ve had difficult moments. I’ve had moments where things just happened that have upset me and brought me down a little bit, but it’s never been where it’s made me want to throw my hands up and do something else. I think being an actor is such a part of who I am. I started doing it so young. It’s a part of my identity. I think that in some way I’ll always act, but I do want to direct and I want to produce my own things. But I think acting will always be the thing that I love most. I’ve never really wavered on that. I feel lucky.”

Audiences have watched Fanning mature onscreen from a kid with the knack of striking the right emotional notes into a teen with that same, remarkably rare ability. Cases in point include her performances in I Am Sam (2001), Taken (2002), Man on Fire (2004), Charlotte’s Web (2006), The Runaways (2009), The Twilight Saga: New Moon (2009) and its two sequels, as well as Very Good Girls (2013) and American Pastoral (2016).

Out to catch a killer

Her current project is The Alienist, an eightepisode limited series on TNT. Based on Caleb Carr’s 1994 novel, the story unfolds in 1896, when a serial killer is leaving the mutilated bodies of young male prostitutes all over Manhattan. Determined to solve the murders are Dr. Laszlo Kreizler (Daniel Bruhl), John Moore (Luke Evans) and Sara Howard (Fanning). Kreizler is a psychologist - or, in the vernacular of the time, an alienist—who uses his training to crack cases by putting himself into the mind of a killer, while Moore is a New York Times illustrator. Howard toils as a police-department clerk - but, ambitious and intuitive, she aspires to much more, as Kreizler and Moore soon discover.

“I hadn’t read the book or heard of the book,” Fanning said. “It was funny, because everyone that I mentioned it to was like, ‘Oh my God, I love that book!’ or ‘That’s amazing!’ And I didn’t read it after I got the role. I went by the script, which is what I usually do when I’m doing something that’s based on a book.”

“Especially for Sara, I wanted to go by the script,” she said. “I was kind of told to go by the script, so I did. I feel like sometimes you get so attached to a book and then maybe the scripts have to take some liberties or make some changes, and that can mess with your mind a little bit. I try and focus on what is actually being brought to life - which, at the end of the day, is the script.”

“I do want to read it,” Fanning added. “I’ve looked at it and looked at parts and know the spirit of it, but I want to go back and read the whole thing. I think enough time has passed. I’ve had enough of a break from playing Sara.”

‘Every day was truly amazing’

Fanning went on to speak breathlessly about the show’s production values, describing herself as “endlessly impressed.” Budapest doubled as late-19th-century New York City, while costume designer Michael Kaplan spared no detail in dressing Fanning, Evans and Bruhl, as well as everyone else from co-stars to extras.

“Every day was truly amazing,” Fanning said. “We were there for six months, and by the end you kind of accepted it as normal. When I first saw the backlot and the sets and the stages, and some of the locations we filmed in that were found in Budapest, I was so in awe at just how grand everything was.”

“And the costumes … Michael Kaplan is truly a genius,” the actress enthused. “Sometimes, if you are making a costume for a movie or a show and there’s 100 buttons, they’ll sink in and make them snaps, just to make it easier to put on. But Michael doesn’t do that. If there’s 100 buttons, there’s 100 buttons. It’s real, all of them.”

“Nothing is compromised, because he really treats the ‘costumes’ as the clothing of these people, these characters,” Fanning continued. “It was a privilege to wear the costumes and to be a part of his process. Obviously for me, being the girl, I had some pretty dramatic looks.”

During her time in Budapest, Fanning noted, she and co-stars Bruhl and Evans formed what they called ‘The Triangle.’ She deemed the friendship they forged to be the “greatest part of this whole experience.”

“I just love them so much,” she said, “and they’re truly lifelong friends now. We have a group chat on our phone and we talk to each other. We keep in touch all the time. I was so excited to work with them, but I never could have imagined that we’d become as good friends as we are, and I’m so thrilled that that’s the case.”

Carr wrote a sequel, The Angel of Darkness (1997), in which Howard works as a private investigator. As of now, though, Fanning said that there’s no plan to adapt The Angel of Darkness into a follow-up series.

Instead the actress’s upcoming projects include Please Stand By and Ocean’s 8. The former is an indie drama that casts Fanning as a young, autistic Star Trek fan who runs off to enter her Star Trek script in a writing contest. The latter is the all-star, all-female Ocean’s 11 spinoff featuring Cate Blanchett, Sandra Bullock, Anne Hathaway and Mindy Kaling, among others, with Fanning in an unidentified supporting role. It will open this summer. Ian Spelling, The New York Times Syndicate