MEDIA > ARTICLES > ELLE FANNING STEALS THE SPOTLIGHT

Elle Fanning Steals the Spotlight
January 21, 2008. By Anthony Kaufman

Child star Dakota Fanning had some stiff competition at this year’s Sundance — right from her own backyard. Elle Fanning, Dakota’s nine-year-old younger sister, stole the show Sunday night at the world premiere of her latest film, “Phoebe in Wonderland.” Also starring Patricia Clarkson and Felicity Huffman, the film follows a dreamy young girl with obsessive-compulsive ticks who joins an elementary school production of “Alice in Wonderland.” Ms. Fanning’s performance was extremely well received, and took place at the exact same theater where her sister’s controversial film “Hounddog” premiered nearly to the day one year ago.

When asked at the Q&A by an audience member what it was like to prepare for an emotional moment in which Ms. Fanning’s character, Phoebe, wakes up from a nightmare and cries in her mother’s arms, the young actress simply responded that she stayed quiet the whole day before the scene. “After,” she said, “I was energized and laughing.”

Ms. Huffman, who plays a mother in denial of her child’s troubles, wondered aloud about the source of her portrayal. “Where does it come from?” she said. “My own struggles with motherhood. It’s hard.”

While buyers remained cautious about the film’s commercial potential, top executives from Fox Searchlight and Miramax were in attendance. Other buyers circulated post-screening outside the Racquet Club Theater debating the film’s marketing challenges. But the movie’s fans didn’t appear daunted by the darker aspects of the story. The pint-sized Ms. Fanning had to be ushered away from a group of autograph seekers to make way for the next film.

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