Random Interviews: Dakota Fanning "why she didn’t cut her hair for Now Is Good"

Speaking omg! exclusively ahead of the film's release, Dakota told us:

"It was a wig, it marks the time if you cut your hair so I wore a wig. It's hard to make the choice whether to do something that drastic and it just became simpler to wear the wig."
Dakota also talked about working with the uber gorge Jeremy Irvine and we quizzed her about whether he just says he can't  hat up girls as a pulling tactic.
The actress agreed that Jeremy is probably just being modest. (Video)

  scotsman It’s a disarming experience talking to Dakota Fanning about death. The Hollywood actor is just 18 years old and as full of beans as a puppy. She giggles like your typical teenager and is as wholesome as your average child star. Yet here we are in a London hotel suite talking about her latest role in British weepy Now is Good, which has forced her to face illness, sadness, and the end of her life.

“One of the reasons I wanted to play this character is because she is so full of life, yet her life is ending,” Fanning says, hugging her knees. “That dichotomy interested me. It means she is feeling a lot of different things at any given time. For an actor, that is a great challenge to portray. I wanted to go through that emotional journey with her.”

She claps a hand to her mouth and giggles. “I always talk about my characters like they’re real people,” she says. Then she shrugs. “But they are real to me.”

Director and screenplay writer Ol Parker on Dakota casting: gethampshire
Q: Tess is played by American actress Dakota Fanning, yet the film is set in London and Brighton. Why didn’t you choose an English actress?
OP: “I arrived to meet her for tea in a hotel in LA and there she was – early, and I learned later that Dakota is always early for appointments – and in control of her surroundings. I asked her to play Tessa almost before the tea was poured.

“She is sharp, funny, ironic, passionate, instantly and endlessly likeable and above all, an immensely talented actress; which is crucial, because Tessa is and should be pretty hard to love occasionally, and you need a great actress to show us the pain behind her frequently selfish actions.
“Dakota got that, loved the book, loved the script and wanted to come to England and make it for nothing. Although I don’t think her agent would have wanted her to say that last bit.”

Q: And did she prove herself?
OP: “Dakota has smarts, wisdom and passion in abundance and brought all those qualities, plus her technical understanding, to the set every day.

“As an actress, she is utterly committed to the truth of a scene, and is more or less incapable of a false moment on screen.

“That’s great for a director, as it does away with all sentimentality.

 Digital Spy sat down with Fanning to discuss her "tear-duct time bomb" of a film and why she's such a big fan of her latest on-screen dad, Paddy Considine.
"It definitely was a challenge because she's feeling so many emotions at any given time," Fanning said of playing Tessa.
"There's so much going on in her body and in her mind, all the relationships she's dealing with and her own fears.
"To be able to portray all of that at once is definitely a challenge for an actor."

1.  Dakota Fanning interviewed by two teenage cancer survivors
2.  Now is Good - Dakota Fanning on Mastering the English Accent