Dakota Fanning on growing up in the spotlight, sex scenes with a man twice her age

With a steady string of successful movies dating back to I Am Sam, 20-year-old Dakota Fanning has been famous for the majority of her life. Speaking to Huffington Post this week, the child star-turned-respected adult actress said she never really though much about the unusual circumstances of her life.

“I think when you’re a child, it’s hard for you to know your life is different from anyone else’s,” she explained. “As you grow up, you think, ‘Oh, no, that’s not normal for everyone.’ And so, yeah, I think I have a different relationship with [fame] now that I’m older.”

Dakota — who both speaks and acts like an older soul — said she’s grateful for her adolescence, even though it’s “definitely not a normal thing.”

These days, the New York City-based actress is tackling continually more “adult” roles: In the upcoming Very Good Girls, she even filmed a sex scene with 43-year-old Peter Sarsgaard.

“I wasn’t very uncomfortable with it,” said Dakota, who plays a teenager on a mission to lose her virginity before college. “It’s really not that big of a deal, it’s just a technical thing.”

As for where she wants to go from here, the already accomplished actress said she wants to focus on movies “about real people or just about people in general.” She added, “Those are my favorite movies to watch — little movies about experiences that everybody has. I think sometimes people can get lost in the bigger special effects, science fiction, robot stuff, and those are cool and fun to watch too, but I think it’s so important to sometimes step back and watch something that’s about life and human interaction.”