Dakota Fanning: 'I'm not going to flaunt my private life'
Dakota Fanning has opened up about how she managed growing up in the public eye.
The 20-year-old rose to fame at the age of 7 in the 2001 film I Am Sam and has since gone on to appear in Charlotte's Web, Hounddog and The Twilight Saga.
Speaking to Town & Country magazine, the actress revealed that it is possible to lead a private life in show business if you choose to.
"I'm just never going to parade my personal life," Fanning explained. "If you choose to not do it, it's not hard to not do it… Any part of an artistic business is made better by there being a little mystery. That's what movies are about."
However, the actress said it has not been an easy ride.
"Because people saw me grow up, there's this weird sort of ownership that they feel for me and that is… difficult," she continued.
"Because it's not real; it's in their minds. People don't know me as much as they think they do. I'll be walking down the street and someone will say hello, and I'll go, 'Oh, hi!' I'll think, I must know this person if they said hello, but then you realize, you don't know them."
Fanning also revealed that she was mature as a child and chose to go into acting herself.
"It's hard to explain to someone who didn't know me as a child. But even before I started working - when I was two, three, four, five - I was an exceptionally mature child. I just was.
"And my mom and I were able to have conversations like, 'Do you want to go to California and go to auditions for commercials and TV shows? Is that something you want to do?' And I was like, 'Yeah, let's give it a try'."
Fanning will next appear in The Last of Robin Hood, which is released in the US on August 29.