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+ PRODUCTION NOTES FOR RUTH COLE

Playing most of her scenes opposite Elle Fanning was a treat for Phillips. Of her petite costar, Phillips enthuses, "She is the cutest thing I've ever seen in my whole life. She's so together; she's like a little woman. So smart!"

Irving comments, "This little girl [Ruth] remains sunny, bright and clear while all these things are going on. That leaves a psychological mystery unsolved for the moviegoing audience. 'What will become of her?' I take two-thirds more of the novel to resolve that..."

Fanning turned five years old during filming. "I'm glad they picked me to be Ruth," she states. Her perception of the film's story comes from Marion's vantage point: "Her boys died, and she had me, and she doesn't want to love [Ruth] too much because she's afraid that something's going to happen to me."

Bridges says, "Working with little girls like Elle can be an acting lesson, because they're so free, and there's a part of acting that's very much like playing pretend when you were a kid. They're much closer to that, and they bring a lot of that into it. For an older guy like me, that's fun to tap into."

Williams clarifies, "I met a sea of four- and five-year-olds, and she was the only one who knew the difference between acting in a make-believe world and the real world. I could ask her to do difficult things, because she got the difference."

"When she first had to cry, she was in the room with Jeff, and we were all out in the hall. I said, 'Action!' and she let it rip. It was horrifying. In retrospect, it was funny to see Jeff looking so panicked. He completely bought her acting. She was so real, yelling and crying and hitting him. I think we all thought she was very, very upset. Then I said 'Cut,' and she laughed and ran out of the room to go back to whatever she was playing with between takes."

Fanning's on-screen mother Basinger enthuses, "Elle is needless to say magically gifted. She is the most beautiful definition of a child. I simply fell in love with her. It was very hard for me when the time came to say goodbye to her at the end of the movie and I've missed her ever since."

Fanning, herself already a movie veteran, took to her new colleagues: "Jon is cute and nice. Kim is so pretty and so fun to be with. She gave me a bracelet. Jeff is wonderful, he gave me a book for my birthday with blank pages so we could color in it..."

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