Dakota Fanning Reveals What Late Co-Star Brittany Murphy Taught Her at a Young Age

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Dakota Fanning and Brittany Murphy
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Dakota Fanning has worked with some of the top talent in the industry from a young age. In a recent interview on Watch What Happens Live With Andy Cohen, the 26-year-old actress opened up about her child star days and was asked about what she learned from her late co-star Brittany Murphy, while on the set of the 2003 film Uptown Girls

"She just taught me to always have fun. She was such a ray of light and had such a playful spirit," Fanning said of Murphy, who died in 2009 at the age of 32. "She made every day special for me. She was so wonderful."

Fanning also praised Tom Cruise, who helped her celebrate her birthday on the set of 2005's War of the Worlds.

"It was when Cold Stone Creamery was just sort of a thing and Tom and [director] Steven Spielberg, they brought in the marble slab on set and had the people making the ice cream for my 11th birthday," she recalled. "It was very fun."

In addition to working with A-listers in film, Fanning also got the chance to have a guest role on Friends, which she admitted left her the most "starstruck" of all. 

"I was really starstruck. I'd met a lot of people. I'd worked with Robert De Niro and Denzel Washington, but these people were in my living room all the time on the show," she explained. "So I felt like I knew them more, so I was kind of even more starstruck by meeting them all."

ET recently spoke with Dakota's younger sister, Elle Fanning, about their upcoming joint project. Watch the clip below for more from the exclusive interview:

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