Spinning 'Charlotte's Web' with Dakota Fanning

Being a huge fan of the children’s classic Charlotte's Web, Dakota Fanning talks about her wonderful experience playing Fern, the little girl with a big heart who loves her pig, Wilbur.

Hollywood.com: Do you remember the first time that you read Charlotte's Web?

Dakota Fanning: I do. I've read it so many times at different times in my life, and I've had it read to me. Then while I was doing the movie I read it before and after. So it's really meant something different to me each time and has a deeper meaning each time and something that I've used in my life as I've gotten older.

HW: Were you ever worried that they might not get it right in the film?

DF: I really wasn't because Gary [Winick] the director, that was his most important thing. He always wanted to make it just like the book and he always had the book in his hand, and if there was any way he could make some illustrations in the book into a real shot in the movie he would do that, and so that never worried me. I knew that it was going to come out very, very similar to the book, but just as a movie.

HW: This is a wonderful little fable about death and dying, this movie, and as a young person do connect with that in any way?

DF: I think that it definitely helps for young kids, or anyone, to deal with losing a loved one or a friend or a pet--anything. [Charlotte's Web] kind of deals with that in a non-traumatizing way. It's done in a very peaceful way and is something that Charlotte's never afraid of. Both of my dad's parents have passed away, and I really think this sort of thing helps with the circle of life and how everyone is born and then you die and you live while you're here and trying to do that to the fullest. (Read More)


Scott Huver
Hollywood.com Staff