新闻纵贯线 In 'The Alienist,' Dakota Fanning Plays The NYPD's First Woman Hire

 

SCOTT SIMON, HOST:

New York City, 1896 - young boys are being brutally¹ murdered. A team of outsiders assembles to hunt down the killer² - a doctor with some unconventional views, a newspaper illustrator haunted by his past and a police secretary who upsets the normalcy.

(SOUNDBITE OF TV SHOW, "THE ALIENIST")

DAKOTA FANNING: (As Sara Howard) What are you doing here?

DANIEL BRUHL: (As Dr. Laszlo Kreizler) We've come to see the commissioner³.

LUKE EVANS: (As John Moore) Sara and I...

FANNING: (As Sara Howard) I am Miss Howard, an employee of the New York Police Department. You will please accord me the respect that my position demands.

EVANS: (As John Moore) Miss Howard is the first woman to hold a position with the police department.

BRUHL: (As Dr. Laszlo Kreizler) Excellent. Perhaps Miss Howard can help arrange an impromptu⁴ meeting with the commissioner.

FANNING: (As Sara Howard) And how should I help do that? With my especially rosy⁵ mouth or my sparkling blue eyes?

EVANS: (As John Moore) Sara, I did not...

FANNING: (As Sara Howard) Miss Howard.

SIMON: Miss Sara Howard is played by Dakota Fanning in the new TV series on TNT, "The Alienist." And she joins us now from New York.

Thanks so much for being with us.

FANNING: Thanks for having me.

SIMON: Alienist is what they used to call psychiatrists⁶. Right?

FANNING: Yeah. It's an old-fashioned term for a psychologist. And your description of the show - I think I'm going to steal it. It was perfect (laughter).

SIMON: Well, with our compliments. And what attracted you to playing Sara?

FANNING: Well, I am fascinated by this time period and fascinated to play a character who aspires⁷ to have a career and pushes the boundaries of what women were allowed to do. And at the same time, she's a young woman who is finding the balance of this strong, tough exterior⁸ that she has to put on to survive in this man's world and also the vulnerability that she feels in her private life when that mask can kind of come off.

SIMON: Strong exterior, but there's also a scene when she's home and her maid helps her get out of a corset, which is a pretty strong not-quite interior.

FANNING: (Laughter) It's another exterior, right?

SIMON: We can learn something by taking a look at the corset these days - about how women were once viewed and how they had to live. Can't we?

FANNING: I think so. We know that women were restricted in what they could and could not do and say. But they were also literally⁹ restricted by the clothing that they had to wear.

We were filming the series for six months, and I was wearing a corset and those clothes every single day. And someone has to help you get dressed in the morning. Someone has to help you undress. Even those simple tasks and those intimate moments that usually we have with ourselves, a woman had to sort of have someone to help her - to chaperone that experience. And so for me, it kind of - it helped put me in the mindset of that time period and gave me a window into, you know, the experience of being a woman back then.

SIMON: And did you notice, playing the character - obviously, there are more women in the workforce¹⁰ in 2018, including police forces around the country. But a lot of the attitudes and problems sound familiar, don't they?

FANNING: Well, they do. And that's something - I struggle sometimes to find the right words to talk about that because, on one hand, you know, it's great when the show that you're making is relevant to the times that you're living in. But some of the relevance¹¹ is kind of unfortunate because - there's a scene in the first episode with my character and another police officer, and you see sexual harassment¹² and abuses of power in the workplace. And the stories do parallel stories that are being told right now. So I think it is important, especially for my generation, to see those similarities between now and so long ago.

SIMON: Yeah. I love the look the series gives young that Theodore Roosevelt...

FANNING: Yes, my boss.

SIMON: ...When he was New York City's police commissioner.

Is it hard not to turn to that character and say, you know, Teddy, I don't know - somehow, I forsee great things for you?

FANNING: (Laughter) Yeah. It's a different version of Roosevelt than I think people are used to seeing. It's early Teddy Roosevelt and the beginning of him changing New York. And then my character is very close to Commissioner Roosevelt because I'm his secretary, and we have a great relationship on the show that gets explored. And you sort of get to see how Roosevelt's hands are tied at times with the corruption¹³ that's going on within his department.

SIMON: You've been acting¹⁴ professionally since you were a child. And I don't have to tell you, there are notable success stories. There are a lot of sad stories, too. What have you learned?

FANNING: I think, for me, what's always been the thing that has grounded me is my genuine love of what I do. And I still check in with myself to make sure that I still am enjoying what I'm doing. You know, when I was younger, my mom was with me at all times - traveling with me and on set with me - and she always made it very clear that if I didn't want to do it anymore, that I didn't have to.

If I was coming to her with sort of a tough moment that had happened that was, you know, a professional situation, she would say - well, you know, do you want to stop? Does it make you want to not do this anymore? And I would always say, no, Mom. Of course not (laughter).

And so, yeah, I still check in with myself and make sure that I'm still - sounds so simple - but still having fun.

SIMON: Dakota Fanning in the new TV series on TNT "The Alienist."

Thanks so much for being with us.

FANNING: Oh, thanks for having me.

(SOUNDBITE OF LUDOVICO EINAUDI'S "EXPERIENCE")

1 brutally   

adv.残忍地，野蛮地，冷酷无情地

参考例句：

• The uprising was brutally put down.起义被残酷地镇压下去了。
• A pro-democracy uprising was brutally suppressed.一场争取民主的起义被残酷镇压了。

2 killer   

n.杀人者，杀人犯，杀手，屠杀者

参考例句：

• Heart attacks have become Britain's No.1 killer disease.心脏病已成为英国的头号致命疾病。
• The bulk of the evidence points to him as her killer.大量证据证明是他杀死她的。

3 commissioner   

n.（政府厅、局、处等部门）专员，长官，委员

参考例句：

• The commissioner has issued a warrant for her arrest.专员发出了对她的逮捕令。
• He was tapped for police commissioner.他被任命为警务处长。

4 impromptu   

adj.即席的，即兴的；adv.即兴的(地)，无准备的(地)

参考例句：

• The announcement was made in an impromptu press conference at the airport.这一宣布是在机场举行的临时新闻发布会上作出的。
• The children put on an impromptu concert for the visitors.孩子们为来访者即兴献上了一场音乐会。

5 rosy   

adj.美好的，乐观的，玫瑰色的

参考例句：

• She got a new job and her life looks rosy.她找到一份新工作，生活看上去很美好。
• She always takes a rosy view of life.她总是对生活持乐观态度。

6 psychiatrists   

n.精神病专家，精神病医生( psychiatrist的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• They are psychiatrists in good standing. 他们是合格的精神病医生。 来自辞典例句
• Some psychiatrists have patients who grow almost alarmed at how congenial they suddenly feel. 有些精神分析学家发现，他们的某些病人在突然感到惬意的时候几乎会兴奋起来。 来自名作英译部分

7 aspires   

v.渴望，追求( aspire的第三人称单数 )

参考例句：

• The fame to which he aspires was beyond his reach. 他追求的名誉乃是他所不能及的。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• An old steed in the stable still aspires to gallop a thousand li. 老骥伏枥，志在千里。 来自《简明英汉词典》

8 exterior   

adj.外部的，外在的；表面的

参考例句：

• The seed has a hard exterior covering.这种子外壳很硬。
• We are painting the exterior wall of the house.我们正在给房子的外墙涂漆。

9 literally   

adv.照字面意义，逐字地；确实

参考例句：

• He translated the passage literally.他逐字逐句地翻译这段文字。
• Sometimes she would not sit down till she was literally faint.有时候，她不走到真正要昏厥了，决不肯坐下来。

10 workforce   

n.劳动大军，劳动力

参考例句：

• A large part of the workforce is employed in agriculture.劳动人口中一大部分受雇于农业。
• A quarter of the local workforce is unemployed.本地劳动力中有四分之一失业。

11 relevance   

n.中肯，适当，关联，相关性

参考例句：

• Politicians' private lives have no relevance to their public roles.政治家的私生活与他们的公众角色不相关。
• Her ideas have lost all relevance to the modern world.她的想法与现代社会完全脱节。

12 harassment   

n.骚扰，扰乱，烦恼，烦乱

参考例句：

• She often got telephone harassment at night these days.这些天她经常在夜晚受到电话骚扰。
• The company prohibits any form of harassment.公司禁止任何形式的骚扰行为。

13 corruption   

n.腐败，堕落，贪污

参考例句：

• The people asked the government to hit out against corruption and theft.人民要求政府严惩贪污盗窃。
• The old man reviled against corruption.那老人痛斥了贪污舞弊。

14 acting   

n.演戏，行为，假装；adj.代理的，临时的，演出用的

参考例句：

• Ignore her,she's just acting.别理她，她只是假装的。
• During the seventies,her acting career was in eclipse.在七十年代，她的表演生涯黯然失色。