NEW YORK—Dakota Fanning will be 13 in February. That might come as a surprise to her younger fans, but for those who have interviewed her over the years, she has always seemed to be a short 40-year-old dressed as a child. She is far more articulate than most teens (and even some 40-year-olds), but despite having made 13 movies and a miniseries in the past five years, she still has great enthusiasm for the job of making movies.

In fact, she may be one of the most enthusiastic people on the planet. When she is asked, at a New York hotel, if she had a good time making Charlotte’s Web (which opens next Friday [December 22] in Vancouver), she says that she was just happy to be on the set of the movie, which was adapted from the famed novel about a spider that sets out to save a pig.

“The book is such a classic,” she says. “So many generations of my family have read it, and I think everyone can apply some of the simpler lessons of the story to their lives. We filmed it 18 months ago just outside of Melbourne, Australia, and it was a long way from home, but it was a cool place to go. I am used to movies coming out a long time after they were made, but the time has gone by so fast because it was fun to shoot. I like waiting for it to come out because I know that when it does come out it will be even more fun.”

Fanning is one of the few human actors in the film. Most of the time, the screen is filled with talking pigs, sheep, cows, horses, and an animated spider. Fanning has to interact with the scene-stealing animals. She says that although she likes to prepare for films, she felt that her scenes with the animals wouldn’t appear to be natural if she did too much preparation. “I don’t think you can prepare for scenes with animals,” she says. “I prepared by practising with the animals and meeting with them but not really emotionally preparing. You just go to the set and they call ‘Action!’”

That statement might seem a little simplistic given that Fanning’s skills have helped her to become one of the most dependable box-office draws amongst young female performers. But Fanning seems to be genuinely excited about being invited back time and again. She says that the best part is that she has been able to make a variety of movies and has moved easily from huge films to smaller projects.

“They have all been fun because I have gotten to meet so many great people and do so many different kinds of movies. I have been fortunate to go from something like War of the Worlds—where the sets were so big and you had Steven [Spielberg] and Tom [Cruise] and so many amazing people and where every department head was the best—to a movie like Charlotte’s Web, which was a much smaller film but one that was still lots of fun.”

Being the most famous child performer in the world has been a burden to many young actors, but Fanning may be an exception. Although some, like Macaulay Culkin, have hated the spotlight, she says she likes the fans and she loves the life. “I enjoy the fans because I know that without them going to your movies you wouldn’t be able to make them. It is an important relationship. I like most things about acting because I never get bored and I can always find challenges. You aren’t playing yourself, so it’s never going to be really easy, which I like. I don’t want to do something that is easy. The best thing is that I have been able to meet so many great people. The other good thing is that I am the first actor in my family. My whole family has been involved in sports. My dad was a baseball player and my grandfather was a quarterback for the Philadelphia Eagles. So we are a sports family. Some people choose sports or music, but I have chosen acting as a career.”

So does she have a plan for a career that will allow her to act beyond her teenage years? The girl from the family of jocks steals a sports cliché and says she will take it one day at a time. “I don’t think that far ahead. I think that anyone can be an actress at any age. I know that two or three years will pass and I will take a look at it [her career] then, but I have to think about right now and not worry about later.”