Dakota Fanning reveals annual tradition with former co-star Tom Cruise

Dakota Fanning has shared a very surprising detail about her friendship with her War of the Worlds co-star, Tom Cruise.

Dakota Fanning and Tom Cruise co-starred in War of the Worlds.

Dakota Fanning has revealed that Tom Cruise sends her a present every year for her birthday.

While appearing as a guest on The Kelly Clarkson Show, the Ripley actress admitted that the gifts have led to a massive collection.

During the interview, Clarkson, 42, mentioned that Fanning, 30, recently celebrated a birthday, reports The US Sun.

“We’ve known you since you were so little so I feel like you’ve kinda grown up in front of us,” she told The Watchers star.

She continued, “I found this amazing, every year on your birthday Tom Cruise still sends you, like, a present on your birthday.”

Fanning and Cruise, 61, starred together in Steven Spielberg’s 2005 sci-fi action thriller War of the Worlds.

The Top Gun: Maverick actor played Ray Ferrier and Fanning starred as his estranged daughter Rachel.

The pair co-starred in the 2005 blockbuster.

The child actor-turned-Hollywood star stated that she turned 11 while filming the movie and Cruise gifted Fanning with her first mobile phone on that birthday.

“It was a Motorola Razr … I wanted a Razr so bad and I must have been talking about it a lot because that’s what he got me,” she told Clarkson.

Fanning added, “Such a great memory.”

Clarkson asked the Equalizer 3 actress, “What did he send you this year?”

“He always sends me the same thing every year,” Fanning responded.

Fanning flanked by director Steven Spielberg and Cruise at the film’s premiere in 2005.

She continued, “After the cell phone, I, like, loved shoes when I was little and I started to be able to fit into really small adult shoes when I was on the War of the Worlds press tour so I was very excited about them.

“So from that birthday on he always sends me shoes.”

Clarkson replied, “You must have a massive shoe collection brought to you by Tom Cruise.”

Child actress

At seven, Fanning received widespread recognition for playing Lucy Diamond Dawson, the daughter of an intellectually challenged man in the Sean Penn-led I Am Sam (2001).

For the role, Fanning would become the youngest Screen Actors Guild Award nominee.

She followed up the career-making part by starring in the comedy Uptown Girls in 2003 and Man on Fire, starring Denzel Washington, in 2004.

Last year, Fanning reteamed with Washington in the third Equalizer movie.

As mentioned, Fanning starred alongside Tom Cruise in War of the Worlds (2005) and acted opposite a CGI pig in the live-action remake of Charlotte’s Web in 2006.

In 2009, she provided the voice titular Coraline in the stop-motion cult classic.

The actress – who broke into Hollywood at a very young age – recently turned 30. Picture: Theo Wargo/Getty Images

Hollywood star

The same year, Fanning began to move into more mature roles as she starred as Jane in The Twilight Saga: New Moon, she would revisit the role in the 2010 sequel The Twilight Saga: Eclipse and later in 2012’s The Twilight Saga: Breaking Dawn – Part 2.

She would continue transitioning into more adult-orientated roles when she starred alongside Twilight’s lead star Kristen Stewart in Floria Sigismondi in The Runaways.

Fanning went on to act in indie films Now Is Good (2012) and Effie Gray (2014), before moving to television in 2018 to star in the period crime drama, The Alienist.

In 2019, Fanning returned to the silver screen as Manson family member Squeaky Fromme in Quentin Tarantino’s Once Upon a Time in Hollywood.

Earlier this year, Fanning starred as Marge, alongside Andrew Scott’s Tom Ripley, in the Netflix adaptation of Patricia Highsmith’s 1955 crime novel The Talented Mr. Ripley, titled Ripley.

This month, the actress is promoting the release of her new, supernatural horror film, The Watchers.

Fanning has a younger sister, Elle Fanning, 26, who is also an actor.

This article originally appeared in The US Sun and was reproduced with permission.

Originally published as Dakota Fanning reveals annual tradition with former co-star Tom Cruise