Dakota Fanning was on The Kelly Clarkson show promoting season two of her Showtime TNT series, The Alienist. The finale just aired Sunday night. It’s not my type of show, but I’ve heard it’s good. You guys know I’m not a fan of Kelly Clarkson. She’s constantly interrupting her guests and making it all about herself. This interview wasn’t much different, but Dakota was so fun to watch that she made up for Kelly. She always seems so genuinely sweet and kind. Dakota, 26, said she’s quarantining with her younger sister Elle, 22. I can’t believe how old those girls are now! I remember when they were in high school. In lockdown Elle has been ambitious about baking and Dakota has been painting by numbers. She shared one of her creations and it was beautiful. She also said she loves true crime podcasts and that she listened to them often while she was filming in Hungary.
She’s quarantining with her sister, mom and grandmother
We gotten to spend a lot of time together which has been good. We are really close. [Elle] made Boston cream donuts from scratch the other day, which took like eight hours. I left in the morning and I came home at night and they still weren’t done.She’s been doing paint by numbers
I’ve ordered a million paint by numbers sets. I love doing it. This is by a brand called Pink Picasso, the fancy paint by numbers. It’s actually a canvas. It’s all about filling in the little [segments].She loves true crime
I’m always really up to date with [true crime podcasts]. When everyone was watching Tiger King I was like ‘I listened to this podcast in Budapest last year.’ When you’re by yourself for seven months in a foreign country there’s a lot of alone time. I’m a big true crime person I listened to all those podcasts watched all the documentaries.On if she has ever wanted a different kind of job
Like the detective agency having your own office. I really liked that. I suppose I can have an office one day. That’s something I can do. It’s fun to have a desk and sit behind your desk and have everything decorated.
[From The Kelly Clarkson show via YouTube]
I’ve always wanted to go to Budapest after seeing a documentary on the historic public baths there. I’ll put that on my after-quarantine travel list along with Greece. Also I love her paint by numbers results! I’m not much of an artist and am not into crafts, but I think I could do that. My friend Karen has been doing a project like that with little colored beads and she says it’s relaxing. I need a new hobby as all the baking, cooking and cleaning isn’t cutting it. The paint by number kits from the brand she mentioned are $42 each, which seems pricey but I guess it’s not so bad if you get a real canvas. Amazon has some really nice ones too for about half that cost.
Here’s Dakota’s interview!
Budapest is a beautiful city. I visited a few years ago and would go back in a heartbeat.
+1
It’s so amazing.
Yeah same, I fell in love with the city, I’d go back at the drop of a hat
I love how their parent never let Hollywood destroy the Fanning girls’ childhood/teens! They really turned out to be well adjusted young adults!
Yes! And both are very talented, they keep growing as actresses, although I still think they are teens :)))
It’s pretty amazing – they both worked a LOT as kids, yet it sounds like they had pretty normal school and home lives. Their parents did well.
I got a few paint by numbers from etsy–frida kahlo and RBG–and they were like 20 bucks each. But then I remembered that I don’t really enjoy coloring, and this is basically the same.
I’m currently struggling through one, too, for the same reason you said and also they didn’t send enough paint. It’s enormous and they sent only 1 or two tiny paints for each color. The numbers patches are so small they are crazy hard to see. I ordered it off of Amazon, so probably a knockoff, and wound up ordering a whole second painting just for more paints. if were to do this again I would actually rather spend the money on a nicer brand like hers and have more confidence in its quality.
FYI – when you see you are running low on paint, add a bit of Floetrol (available at Home Depot) to it. Just a teeny tiny amount. It changes the chemical structure of paint differently than water does and stretches out the paint rather than dilutes it – and usually in the paint by number kits the paint is really thick, thicker than you need. By doing this you end up saving money on buying an extra kit. (I’m an artist and use floetrol with acrylics for a variety of reasons.)
I find the brush is hard to manipulate into tiny corners! And then the first one I did had me do all the white paint last, and it just didn’t cover the other colors well. So for the next one, which I haven’t finished, I started with the white.
Doodle, There is no reason to use anything other than water to extend your acrylic paint. You aren’t learning to paint through a Paint by Numbers- youtube some videos
I was in Budapest just before everyone started locking down (at a time when we probably should have been protecting ourselves already) and it’s a gorgeous city. I love it. Also visited Santorini many years ago and loved it as well.
My roommates and i tore through several paint-by-number sets when lockdowns in MA first started back in March/April. The novelty has worn off and we’re looking for our next great activity, lol. I love the Fannings although curiously I seem to have watched more things with Elle in them. The Great was a big favorite to binge during lockdown. Maybe i will start watching The Alienist.
I would like to humbly recommend macramé. I did that and it’s super easy to pick up (unlike the embroidery kits I ordered and am now too intimidated to try. But I’m having a Zoom catch up when a friend skilled in sewing which will help).
Also Mr Fothergills mircoherbs kits (it’s an quick & apartment friendly form of gardening). Order craft supplies and making your own sun catchers to bring rainbows in. Painting rocks. Shibori dying. Collecting orchids. The Pepin Press postcard colouring in kits cuz you can then post them to friends. Listening to the Plantasia album and staring at fairy lights was a fun evening.
Also does anyone have a favourite activity for quarantine? I like having projects! My current one is learning about native plants and growing them because I’m lucky enough to have a yard!✨
Thank you for all these recommendations, Marcel! I do embroidery in my spare time regardless of the pandemic, so I’ve got a couple of those lying around. I just haven’t felt moved to pick them up. Maybe your comment is a sign that I should!
A friend who moved out of town recently left her planters with me, and yesterday, I promptly filled three of them with basil, rosemary, and parsley as I attempt to pick up “gardening” and plant-tending in my yardless, patioless, balcony-less apartment. The basil looks a bit droopy but it could be in shock from being repotted. I am crossing my fingers they will bounce back soon 🙂
I’ve been reading SO much in the last few weeks of quarantine that I decided to get a Kindle so I can borrow books from my local public library. I have also been itching to both buy a Nintendo Switch Lite and pick up sewing more seriously. I love the idea of the Pepin Press postcard and macrame, which could come in very handy if my plant-tending skills take off.
I like to knit and crochet in the cooler months, there’s a lot of tutorials and free patterns out there, and you can do stuff for charities like baby blankets.
I’m an artist so in any free time (I’m working from home, thankfully) I paint. I lost power for a few days during the tropical storm last week, so I did one little painting while it was light enough out, and then read a couple of books.
A good hobby, if you’re in the US and can afford to do so, is to write postcards encouraging people to vote. Postcards to Voters is a good one, you can order the cards and stamps, and other local groups are doing stuff too.
Knitting sounds like something i could do! Is it hard to pick up?
The basic stitches are pretty easy. There are tons of good tutorials on youtube. I find crocheting to be faster, so if I want to do a blanket or something, I do that, but I like the look of knitting better.
Aw, I love these girls. they are a breathe of fresh air. I haven’t watched the 2nd season of The Alienest yet. I only mildly enjoyed the first season and mostly because I’m sucker for period dramas. Dakota was good and her costumes were fabulous.
I’m enjoying the second season a bit more than the first. Maybe because it’s less of the Dr and more Sara and John Moore? The costumes and scenery are just as fantastic as the first season though. But still haven’t watched the last two episodes yet.
Personally I love that she’s still promoting staying home – the narrative has already shifted in so much of the country and it disturbs me. Everyone should still be staying home as much as they can!
I still think baby Dakota deserved an Oscar nom for Man on Fire. I’ll never not bawl my eyes out watching that film.
I love The Alienist, what costumes, what set designs, overall production design is superb, and the cast is tremendous. Between The Alienist and The Great, the Fanning sisters are truly winning at getting The Best Costumes designed for them!
I bought my first paint by numbers set a couple of weeks ago. Having kids, it’s hard to find time where I can just sit and paint w/o being bothered but, I try to do a little each day. It can be TEDIOUS, but it’s a nice thing to do while listening to a podcast!
She had big implants for a while but seems to have had them removed. She’s a good actress; amazing in that film with Sean Penn and the War of the Worlds one with Tom Cruise. Her sister was also precocious; saw Benjamin Button the other night and she was in it for a few scene as a tiny little young girl but such a good little actress. I must be the last person in the world to find out what paint by numbers is. Looks fun. Reminds me of those miniature crafts videos on YT; they look fun too but I don’t think I’d have the patience for it if it came down to that. I jumped on the the colouring craze a few years back and ultimately gave away the books and pencils I got. 🙂