Fanning admits she’s never seen the parody. “I hear it’s hilarious,” she says, before breaking into giggles. “Saturday Night Live is such a funny show. Those people are so talented, you can’t help but laugh. You have to be able to laugh at yourself. I get it. I understand.”
And though she doesn’t crush on the Jonas Brothers or watch Hannah Montana like most girls her age, she points out that she has read every Harry Potter book: “I preordered the seventh one and everything.” She also enjoys reading about the Holocaust, however. “My tutor is a history major and she loves reading books about it, and I think she passed that down to me,” Fanning says. “I just find it so interesting.”
As aware of her stature in the industry as she is—she has worked with Robert De Niro, Tom Cruise and Denzel Washington, and eagerly awaits her turn with Jodie Foster—Fanning seems to be trying her best to stay a normal kid. There’s cheerleading camp, not to mention her choice to stop homeschooling and matriculate at a private school. Still, she insists, she hasn’t yet discovered boys. “I don’t really push that,” she says. “It’ll happen when it happens. I don’t think that I need to look for a date right now.” The peer pressure of drinking at parties has not become an issue, either. “That’s not something I think about right now and hopefully will never have to experience,” she says with a little trepidation. “I know what’s right for me, and I stay on my path.”
For the moment, that path remains her acting career. It’s been seven years since her breakthrough in I Am Sam, but, she claims, “I still love it just as much, and I feel just so fortunate each day to go and do what I love. It’s just a part of who I am.” Like many actors, however, she has bigger ambitions. “I would love to direct,” Fanning deadpans, without a hint of irony. If she didn’t have so much poise, it could be a joke. “I would. I really would. A drama, maybe? It’s always been a dream of mine. I’ve gotten to work with so many different directors, and I think I could communicate with the actors pretty well and have the vision to know what I want in a script. But it’s a hard job,” she admits solemnly, taking a last bite of her cookie and a sip of her Coke. “I think I’ll wait till I’m a little bit older. Maybe college?”
