Dakota Fanning doesn't appear in TNT's new big-budget limited series The Alienist until halfway through the first episode. Once she does, though, she literally and figuratively takes over the screen. "The sleeves take over," Fanning jokes of her character's early-twentieth-century wardrobe. While that's true—the costumes are a period-piece dream—it's her character, Sara Howard, who is the most captivating and crucial aspect of the series.
"She wasn't someone that cleaned the halls," Fanning says of Howard. As secretary to commissioner Theodore Roosevelt, she is the first woman hired by the New York Police Department and determined to become the first female police detective in the city. Of course, during that time challenging gender and cultural norms is an uphill battle for Howard. Still, she makes every effort to prove herself. Which is why, much like awards-season favorites The Handmaid's Tale, Alias Grace, and The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel, the series is extremely timely. "So timely," Fanning emphasizes.
Case in point: In one scene Fanning's character walks in on a powerful man relieving himself in his office, but there are no consequences for his actions. "[The sad thing is], she accepts that it's part of the workplace," Fanning explains. "She challenges him to his face, but the thought of telling someone about it doesn't even cross her mind."
While the cast and crew felt the series was relevant during production, it wasn't until the show had wrapped and the Weinstein story broke that Fanning realized just how relevant Sarah's story was. "You wish it wasn't, but it is," she says. "We can't totally change that overnight. At least, hopefully, positive conversation can come from its relevance."
When talk turns to her own upbringing in the public eye and the ways she relates to her character, Fanning takes a moment to think about her response. "I'm strong, and I’ve always felt empowered to use my voice. I’m lucky that’s been my experience," she says. But with that strength has come misconceptions about the 23-year-old actor that she says is the result of being guarded in interviews. "My instinct is to not always reveal that much," she says. "You're always thinking about what you're saying and how it could potentially be taken out of context, so sometimes you leave an interview thinking you weren't really yourself. So of course somebody is going to have misconceptions."
Those misconceptions that she's referring to are that she's "uptight," but she's quick to point out "that's so not at all who I am." Not that she has to apologize for it if she is, but she laughs and says, "I am a particular person, that's for sure. I know what I like, and I know what I don't. So I have a desire to challenge what people think of me. If somebody has an expectation or a preconceived idea of who I am, there’s nothing I love more than shattering that! And just doing the opposite."
In fact, she says it's one of the reasons she joined Instagram, because it offered her a way to share more of her true self that wasn't always being depicted in interviews. "I can share more of my personality and things that I care about or am interested in or funny things." It's ironic, given today's filtered social media landscape, but she says, "I can be more myself."
