Dakota Fanning in Controversial role..........

[Darth_Kitten]

http://www.nydailynews.com/news/gossip/story/436553p-367837c.html

Don't know how I came upon this, but isn't this going a bit far? The kid just turned 12. :(

[NNadir]

1. I think it's going too far.

[idgiehkt]

52. Jenna Malone's character was raped in "Bastard out of Carolina"

Angelica Huston directed that. It was utterly and completely horrifying, and her mother's reaction is worse. That was about ten years ago, I think. So it's been done, certainly, and Malone did it very well. I think if any actress can handle it, Fanning can. Honestly, I'd really like some reality in Hollywood about what hellacious childhoods some children have, especially in the south. I hate that a young actress would be traumatized by it. I've never read anything about Malone's reaction to her role. That whole scene and the scene after are incredibly hard to watch. Jennifer Jason Leigh played the mom. What's worse is the movie is about the childhood of Dorothy Allison, whose suffering by her own account was much worse than what was shown in this movie.

[MrScorpio]

2. Yeah, I think that this is going overboard

Mom needs to get the stars out of her eyes

[bumblebee1]

49. and the dollar signs, too.

[Writer]

3. First of all, this is the NY Daily News...

secondly, Dakota Fanning is an extremely mature and intelligent young actress. I am certain the director won't place her in these situations without serious consideration about her well-being as a twelve year-old. To do so would be unethical and against the DGA.

Also - what does Jodie Foster think, I wonder?

[CanuckAmok]

6. DGA wouldn't care.... but SAG would.

[Writer]

15. Ah, yes. Very true. Thank you. n/t

[CanuckAmok]

20. Sadly, DGA only steps-in in those situations when one of their...

...own members could suffer as a result; ie when John Landis and Joe Dante were charged with neglegence following the Twilight Zone Movie incident. If there hadn't been any link drawn between DGA members and the accident, we wouldn't have heard a peep from DGA.

FWIW, as someone who deals with set liability, that accident is 100% the fault of the First Assistant Director, byt that's a whole other thread, and just my .02, anyway.

[HarukaTheTrophyWife]

4. I think she's very mature for her age

and these things are very well-regulated and supervised. Stuff like that has been done before in movies. I don't think it's taking film making too far, I just think it's showing another unfortunate aspect of life. Just because we find it distasteful, doesn't mean it shouldn't be done.

[tinfoil tiaras]

5. Well, it might be a wee bit creepy considering she looks like a 6 year old

:scared: But hell, i guess she can do whatever the hell she wants. If she's comfortable with it, then its fine.

[philosophie_en_rose]

7. What's the purpose of it?

If it shows a 12 year old mostly naked and in a sexual situation, I fail to see the purpose beyond titillating perverts.

But nudity does not necessarily mean exploitation. (Ex: Hannah Green in Anne Frank).

[Placebo]

8. Americans are so super fucking sensitive.

It's not sexual, it's for the disturbing realism of the role.

This will probably earn her an Oscar!

[MissMillie]

30. really? I don't think we're sensitive enough

I get that this movie is a serious role, and that it will portray serious issues... but you know, most of the time, a scene doesn't have to be graphic for me to understand what's going on.

I forget which movie it was, Platoon or Full Metal Jacket, where the guy sits down and puts his rifle to his mouth. Hearing the gun go off would be enough for me to know that he killed himself, but for movie goer in this this country the director felt we really needed to see gray matter splat against the wall behind the guy's head. And this was YEARS ago! Things have only gotten worse since.

I'm all for free expression and creativity, but it's almost gotten to the point where people are trying to out-do each other on the shock value thing.

I don't see very many movies anymore.

[Nicholas D Wolfwood]

36. Not true at all.

It was not enough in the least to just hear the gun go off. The entire purpose of the movie was to expose the horrors of the Marine Corps and the Vietnam War. Yeah, you might've known he killed himself, but the point was to burn the consequences of basic training onto your mind. It would not have had the same impact without that image. There ARE movies that just go for shock value, but that certainly wasn't even close to being one of them.

NB. Though I defend Kubrick here, I am an outspoken critic of his. I think he's way overrated, but right is right and wrong is wrong.

[MissMillie]

37. thank you for your opinion

I don't agree with it, nor the attitude that there's black (wrong) and white (right) and no such thing as shades of gray.

It WAS horrifying enough for me that he went mad and killed himself.

[Rabrrrrrr]

9. Is being concerned about her free choice going too far? Yes, it is.

I agree with you totally! People making a stink about this ARE going too far.

Dakota is an intelligent, thoughtful girl, who has parents who are clearly NOT using her to make money for themselves, and she seems to have agent that also cares about her and the roles that she takes. IN the realm of child actors, I'd say Dakota and Haley Joel Osmet are too that are clearly not going through the standard "parents just want a cash cow" abusature that other child actors go through.

I have full confidence that the decision by Dakota to be in this was well-reasoned, well-thought, and itentional. And given that it is such a low budget film, this is clearly not being done to use Dakota to bring home the bacon for mommy and daddy.

Why do people get so upset about this?

It sounds like a powerful story, and like they're trying to film something shows the horror of rape without being sensationalistic about it.

[philosophie_en_rose]

10. Can a 12 year old decide to be in a child porn, then?

I'm not suggesting that you think so, but there is clearly a line between what minors can and cannot choose to do.

[Rabrrrrrr]

11. This isn't porn, though, is it?

[HarukaTheTrophyWife]

16. This isn't porn though and it shouldn't be compared to porn.

I feel she's old enough to decide to do this movie.

I think it's disgusting how everytime something involving a nude child comes up, someone always immediately compares it to child pornography.

[LostinVA]

28. This is nothing like porn -- Gena Malone did it in "Bastard out of Carolin

Jodie Foster in "Taxi Driver." It depends on the kid and the subject matter.

[HarukaTheTrophyWife]

31. Aren't all naked kids doing pornography these days?

:eyes:

[LostinVA]

32. Only if they're on camping trips with their family and friends

[HarukaTheTrophyWife]

34. Especially if a kid's head is accidentally cropped out of the picture.

It's not like kids don't move around and shit when you're trying to get a picture.

[LostinVA]

39. Or looks like staged spontaneous play

[Placebo]

50. Amen, brotha!

:patriot:

[Fleshdancer]

12. I wouldn't let my daughter do it

Call me uptight or whatever, but there's no way I would be comfortable having my daughter act out a rape scene.

[Writer]

17. Probably because the image would be especially disturbing to you...

as this scene would be especially disturbing to many. But that's the point of doing it, I think.

[Kire]

18. that's not the point

the point is how she creates a moral victory through Elvis music

that's better storytelling than showing a child rape scene just to disturb someone

[Writer]

40. I doubt it's being shown "just to disturb..."

How can we be so damned judgmental when we haven't seen this scene in its artistic context?

[liontamer]

13. there's no way to judge if it's going to far if we haven't seen the movie

[Vidar]

14. The experience didn't seem to hurt Brooke Shields or Jdie Foster.

[LostinVA]

29. Or Gena Malone

[Vidar]

41. Don't know her. What movie?

[LostinVA]

44. Bastard out of Carolina

[Vidar]

56. Thanks.

[RoyGBiv]

19. No ...

If supervised by intelligent, sober parents, which hers seem to be, and if she personally doesn't have a problem with it after her parents have agreed, there's nothing wrong with this.

It's called acting.

If it's the nudity or semi-nudity (clad in underpants) that bothers people, all I can say is how quaint. American puritanism strikes again.

And, yes, I have a daughter who was this age not long ago. I know the difference between sexual exploitation and acting. If we want to talk about exploitation, look to the mainstream advertising industry that has been so successful in making young girls believe that in order to be normal, they need to be 5'9" and weight barely 100 pounds, use tons of makeup, wear jeans that show the crack of their ass and underwear that ride up into it, have tatoos at least on the small of their back, and have every word out of their mouth ooze sex.

[HughBeaumont]

21. All I know is . . .

I had to take 9 showers to wash off the creepiness after watching Happiness, and those boys were older than Dakota. You didn't even have to see it happen (which you didn't); just the suggestion, scenes during and after and dialogue was enough to make you want to have Dylan Baker's character guillotined.

Even though Taxi Driver is one of my favorite movies, I still get creeped out by the scene with her and Sport dancing like a couple only because you remember she's 12. Jodie Foster didn't look 12 even though her character was (she was 13). I don't know that it's different because her character voluntarily ran away and became a prostitute that I'm not that disturbed as I would be greatly in watching a child character that gets taken against their will . . . either way, it tells us something about ourselves. :scared: :yoiks:

[murielm99]

38. I don't know if this makes a difference

to you, but Foster had an older sister who was her double. The sister did some of the more disturbing scenes.

Or, is it the idea that a twelve-year-old prostitute is being portrayed at all?

P. S.: I love that movie, too.

[HughBeaumont]

46. I think it's the idea that Jodie was 13 at the time

and the character, 12 years old, is having a sexual relationship with her twice-Iris's-age pimp and he's talking her up to clients graphically about her many "talents" that's disturbing.

Knowing that Jodie's older sister did the disturbing scenes (I have the DVD, but never watched the extras) makes it less of a creepfest, indeed.

Happiness offers no such luxury. "Would you ever fuck me, dad?" "No, I would just jerk off instead . . ." :puke: You know, I don't give a shit if it's acting, it just plain ain't NATURAL for an adolescent and an adult to have that kind of dialogue in theater or in real life. I'm the furthest thing from a prude there is, but not when it comes to kids. It has to be talked about and portrayed, but it doesn't mean I'm not allowed to be creeped the hell out by it.

[_testify_]

55. Happiness

that was a fucked up movie.

[NMMNG]

22. If I had a 12 year old I wouldn't let her do it

No way, no how.

[Broken_Hero]

23. I think she can handle it

albiet, I really don't care for her, but the only movie I have seen her in is War of the Worlds, and I thought she was irritating as can be...I just about jumped through the screen to choke her, while she was screaming her head off, during the van escape scene towards the begining...

[zonkers]

24. Her parents are robbing her of a childhood. Some of the shots in

her last film with Deniro were very disturbing in that she was photographed in a very waify, somewhat sexual way. It was creepy.

[datasuspect]

25. that is one irritating child actress

.

[Darth_Kitten]

26. They want her to win an Oscar.......

hey, she just turned 12. What's the rush?

I think her so-called parents need a definite wake up call. I don't want to see a nude child in any film. Just because a kid is precocious doesn't mean she has the maturity to handle such, well, exposure.

Why can't kids be left to be kids anymore? We as adults can say, sure, she can handle it, she's tackling such necessary real life topics and that's what we need to see in films. But no, it's a kid here.

And I don't care if her mother agreed to it, and her agent, another woman, agreed to it. It's still exploiting a child for gain.

[MissMillie]

35. her parents know her far better than I do, but

I'm going to venture a guess that very few 12 year-olds are mature enough to handle the emotions that may arise out of performing in such a violent scene, especially having to do with sexual violence.

12 is a pretty tender age for a young girl when it comes to issues of sex and her body. Not just because she's young, but because at that age so much is just starting to happen for her. I would be worried that such a role might mess with her images of growing up and sex.

But her parents know her better than I do. They may think she can handle it.

[LostinVA]

27. Gena Malone did it in "Bastard out of Carolina"

She deserved an Emmy for that role, as did Ron Eldrad as her evil stepfather.

I think it depends on the child actor, their maturity and understanding, and how much they trust the director, cast, and crew.... and how trustworthy and empathic the above are.

[Darth_Kitten]

58. that was a disturbing movie..........

and a brutal scene to have to watch. :(

[Nicholas D Wolfwood]

33. I rather think it's important.

Girls younger than her get raped in real life everyday. If the sight of it in a movie horrifies people, good. It should. Maybe they'll do something now when they suspect it happening in real life instead of just turning the other way.

[NashVegas]

45. How Important Is It To Be Exploitative?

No matter how much sensitivity those involved attempt to use, it's still exploitation for gain, regardless of whether the gain is financial, artistic, or social.

[Nicholas D Wolfwood]

54. How is it exploitative?

Who, exactly, is it exploiting?

[LSK]

42. definately going too far

" calls for Fanning's character to be raped in one explicit scene and to appear naked or clad only in "underpants" in several other horrifying moments."

12 seems too young to be doing this.

And I am by far no prude.

[HiFructosePronSyrup]

43. Crapsakes, people...

It's make believe.

[Divameow77]

47. A Time to Kill

is that the movie with Samual L Jackson, whose daughter gets raped by 2 men? That actress looked to be younger then Dakota Fanning and while it didn't show a graphic rape scene she still had to understand the act to act the way she did in the aftermath of it.

[jrandom421]

48. Actually not at all

What was a bit far was her attempting to act like a responsible adult in "The Cat in the Hat"

[Placebo]

51. I'm beginning to think people are just scared of their own demons.

Afraid that when they watch the scene of little Dakota getting raped they'll get an erection or like it too much. Or that they might sexualize a 12 year old girl way more than society should ever allow. But those are issues with the viewer, not with the film.

That being said, no one has seen this movie yet, so making condemning or praising it one way or the other is entirely pointless.

And people are acting like kids have never been naked or partially naked in movies ever before. Just the other day I was watching 'Greystroke: Legend of Tarzan' on HBO Family for the first time since in ages. My mother called me up and told me we used to watch it together when I was a kid. And for like the first half that little boy is completely naked! I never remembered that, but it wasn't weird because I mean, c'mon, it's tarzan.

And how many of you have seen Blue Lagoon? EXACTLY.

[Initech]

53. So does she actually have a speaking part or scream the whole time?

Considering the nature of the scene, I'm guessing it's the latter.

[MiniMandaRuth]

57. I might of been able to handle that when I was 12...

Two years ago....

But maybe not....

I don't know. If she wants to do it, she can. It's her choice, and no one else's.