Dakota Fanning Finally Feels 'Secure' in 'Sharing Different Sides' to Herself After Growing Up in the Spotlight: 'People Were Just Waiting for Me to Make a Massive Mistake'

Dakota Fanning has fully grown into herself and her career.

The actress, 30, has been famous for more than half of her life but has only recently felt the freedom to tackle any type of role she wants.

After starring as the neurotic and cunning Abby in Netflix's The Perfect Couple, she explained in a recent interview, "The people in my life, like my friends and my family, know that I could be this character and tap into a darker side of mine — obviously not murderous and not as out of touch as Abby, but I definitely have that kind of dark, twisted sense of humor in me."

"I think I feel more secure in sharing different sides of myself. For so much of my life, it felt like people were just waiting for me to make a massive mistake," she continued. "Finally, I think, everybody sees that I’ve grown up, so I don’t have to worry about those things anymore. There’s a bigger freedom to play with my persona or just be a little bit more myself and not worry that everything that I do or say is going to be so picked apart."

With her young Hollywood days behind her, Fanning has loved getting to shock people with her abilities. “My kink is taking people by surprise and doing things that they don’t expect me to do,” she added.

The Uptown Girls alum will be honoring another icon who grew up in the public eye with her next project. "We have the rights to Paris Hilton’s memoir. We’re doing that with A24 and Paris. This is my girlhood dream come true; it’s such an exploration of the early 2000s. Paris is a friend now, which is like, if you told me this at 12, I would’ve lost my s---. She’s a genius. She knows exactly what’s going on. Nobody’s been fooling her. She’s dealt with super-traumatic situations in her life," Fanning pointed out.

"Maybe I wouldn’t have put 'that’s hot' stickers on my chest and posted a picture of it a few years ago, but here I am. That’s me! And it’s always been me," she gushed over her love for the socialite. "Who cares, why not? It’s like my favorite picture of myself."

Fanning will also be teaming up with her famous sibling, Elle Fanning, for the film. "My sister and I are both excited about it and getting to know Paris in a very real way. It’s so wild because we grew up in her heyday — which, I mean, has she ever really not had a heyday? We’re still living in it; she’s an icon who has endured the test of time," she spilled.

The Cut conducted the interview with Dakota.