Dakota Fanning Jokingly Calls Iconic Awards Show Moment with Orlando Bloom the ‘Peak Achievement’ of Her Career

Meredith WilshereSat, August 29, 2026 at 6:59 PM UTC

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Dakota Fanning; Dakota Fanning and Orlando BloomCredit: Araya Doheny/Getty; Critics Choice/Instagram -

Dakota Fanning won a Critics’ Choice Award at age 7 for her role in I Am Sam

Orlando Bloom held her up on stage so she could deliver her acceptance speech, a moment she calls her “peak achievement”

Fanning hopes to recreate the moment with Bloom at a future Critics’ Choice Awards ceremony

While Dakota Fanning has had an illustrious career, one moment from her early days in Hollywood still stands out — when she won the Critics’ Choice Award in 2002.

Fanning, 32, recently joined Josh Horowitz on the Happy Sad Confused podcast to talk about the moment, which she joked was her “peak achievement” in life — not just because of the award, but also because of who she shared the stage with.

When Fanning was 7, she won the award for Best Young Actor for her performance in I Am Sam. When she went on stage to accept the award, however, she was too short to reach the microphone. The presenter for the category, Orlando Bloom, then picked her up and held her while she delivered her speech.

“People make me watch it all the time,” Fanning said. “I was just with my sister’s boyfriend’s family this past weekend; it’s their favorite thing. Someone came over, a friend; they were like, ‘Have you seen it? You have to see it.’ ”

Dakota Fanning in 2002Credit: Vinnie Zuffante/Getty

Having seen it countless times, she refused and joked that she was “literally running down the hall of the house to get away from this video.”

“I’m, like, hiding in the room. I come out, still not over, still talking,” she said. “Orlando Bloom’s shaking like a leaf trying to hold me up.”

Fanning also remembered all the people she thanked in her speech.

“I thank God and my agents. God. Then my agents. Unbelievable,” she recalled. “And by the way, I remember it like it was yesterday… I have a lot of people to thank, and then, at the end, my mom, dad and my little sister Elle.”

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Over 20 years later, she still finds it “so funny.”

“I love it,” she admitted.

“I don’t not like it, but listening to it sometimes I’m like, ‘Oh my God, oh my God, it’s still going,’” Fanning shared.

Dakota Fanning and Orlando BloomCredit: Critics Choice/Instagram

The actress has run into Bloom a few times since, and admitted that the moment has come up in conversation.

“I’ve seen him a few times actually recently, and we always talk about it, and he’s like, ‘All right, come on, let’s do it!’” she joked.

She hopes to recreate the bit in the future, and shared that it would be good for the Critics’ Choice Awards.

“They’re missing an amazing bit,” she ended.

on People

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Source: “AOL Entertainment”