Kristen, Dakota lock lips in rock saga: It's just a job

TORONTO — You must remember this, their kiss was just a kiss.
That's the word on Dakota Fanning and Kristen Stewart, who lip lock in the musical biopic about the all-girl 1970s rock band The Runaways.
In the movie, Fanning portrays lead singer Cherie Currie, while Stewart defines singer-guitarist Joan Jett. Both Jett and Currie were co-founders of the wild and reckless R-rated band, and in the movie, they seem to be buddies with benefits, as the smooching implies.
No big deal. For the teen actresses, it was just another day at the motion picture factory.
"This was just another scene for them; it was like, 'Action, cut,' and go on with your life," said director Floria Sigismondi in Toronto recently to promote The Runaways.
Still, when you think about pretty vacant androgynous rockers, Dakota Fanning and Kristen Stewart don't usually come to mind.
But they kick it rock 'n' roll, old school — rock posturing that’s a quantum pop-culture leap from Stewart's Bella and Fanning's scary vampire Jane in last year’s tween-friendly The Twilight Saga: New Moon, and Eclipse, opening June 30.
And that's the point, say the teens who both started in the business at an early age and continue to mature into more grown-up roles, as their Runaways portrayals show.
The Sigismondi movie — partially based on Currie's 1989 autobiography Neon Angel: The Cherie Currie Story — chronicles the band from its early days, when the outfit burned bright until its substance-abuse flame-out.
As the film suggests, the collapse arrived amid legal hassles, personality clashes within the group and with their colourful, Svengali-like manager Kim Fowley (Michael Shannon).
For background, Stewart had the real-life Jett — also an executive producer on the project — on set for referencing.
"I got to know the Joan now, and the Joan then, through footage and the script," says Stewart. "I got to know who she was in such a whole way.
"So, for me, it's not about imitating, even though I was really concerned about details being right, and the gestures and stuff," she adds. "It had to be a good impersonation, but I wanted it to be natural, too."
Fanning had to rely on the Currie book, a meeting with Currie off the set and, of course, her well-honed actress instincts. Cherie, after all, was a substance-abusing sex kitten with low self-esteem and a history of family dysfunction.
Not a problem, says Fanning: “That's what acting is all about." Besides, playing opposite Stewart as Jett made "the kiss and everything else" so much easier.
"Yeah, it was really great making The Runaways with her (Kristen) after we had become really good friends and really close throughout all the experiences we’ve had," she says of working with Stewart consecutively on New Moon, The Runaways and Eclipse.
"I couldn’t ask for a better person to do three movies in a row with. It was really good for us to know each other so we weren’t complete strangers doing The Runaways."
The Fanning transition from child actor to teen thespian didn't start with The Runaways. Previously, the 16-year-old portrayed a rape victim in the drama, Hounddog, a troubled adolescent in The Secret Life Of Bees and the "getting drunk" clairvoyant on the lam in last year's sci-fi adventure Push.
A decade has passed since she defined the cutie-pie child opposite Sean Penn in I Am Sam, and as Tom Cruise’s confident daughter in War of the Worlds.
Stewart, 19, began as a child actor in commercials, and had a breakout part playing Jodie Foster's daughter in the thriller Panic Room. She followed that up with co-starring roles in the fantasy adventure Zathura and The Messengers.
She won the Twilight role of Bella, thanks to her cameo in Sean Penn's Into The Wild opposite Emile Hirsch, and was featured in the ensemble romantic comedy Adventureland last year.
Their fame didn't deter the Hamilton, Ont., raised Sigismondi from hiring them for the lead roles in The Runaways. In fact, Stewart had tentatively signed on to play Jett just before the release of Twilight.
And while Fanning was a well-known waif, the director said she liked the fact the former child actress could play against her wholesomeness.
"I was super-excited to get Dakota," said Sigismondi, a rock-video director making her major motion-picture debut.
"She was the right age and she's the girl kids have grown up with, and so I thought maybe her portrayal would hit on a deeper level, because you'd feel (Cherie Currie's) age."
Another bonus for the director? Stewart and Fanning were willing and able to do their own singing.
"There were lots of rehearsal scenes, and their characters would sing and then talk, so Kristen and Dakota really had to do their singing," notes Sigismondi. "Both of them really wanted to do it, and after their (rock) boot camp, they owned it."
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~Robstenfan