Young actress Dakota Fanning teams up with singing sensations Queen Latifah, Alicia Keys, and Jennifer Hudson for Fox Searchlight's The Secret Life of Bees, which recently won Favorite Drama and Favorite Independent Movie at the People's Choice Awards. The film also features Oscar nominee Sophie Okonedo.Set in South Carolina during the turbulent Civil Rights era, the home of honey-making Boatwright sisters (Latifah, Keys, and Okonedo) is suddenly thrust into upheaval with the arrival of 14-year-old Lily Owens (Fanning) and her caretaker Rosaleen (Hudson). Surrounded by unexpected comforts, grace, and deeply rooted spirituality in the Boatwright home, Lily forms a maternal bond with each of these women, whose special gifts help ease the loss of her mother.
Fanning reportedly enjoyed the creative challenge of portraying a white teenager in the South during the '60s whose only mother-figure is an African-American housekeeper. "It adds a certain amount of tension to the movie because it was looked down upon for a young white girl to be living with African-American people. This is something my character can’t understand," Fanning explains.
Hudson says her character and Fanning’s were bound by shared needs. "They both have a struggle: Rosaleen wants to be acknowledged as a human being while Lily is looking for a mother. So where one is weak, the other is strong," she says.
The Secret Life of Bees will be shown exclusively in Ayala Malls Cinemas (Glorietta 4 and Greenbelt 3) starting January 21.
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