PRESS ASSOCIATION -- Dakota Fanning coped "very well" with her English accent in new film Now Is Good, her co-star Olivia Williams has said.
The US star plays a terminally ill girl who makes a list of things she wants to do before dying, with Williams and In America's Paddy Considine playing her parents.
And Fanning's on-screen mum insisted the starlet's estuary English accent was up to scratch.
"Dakota did very well, she got an accent coach - there's a big business in accent coaching these days," Williams said.
"(Accents) just aren't a big deal, it's part of the job. It's a shame that people find it so distracting."
The Hanna star went on: "We do amazing levels of suspension of disbelief when we go to the theatre and even watch a movie, and yet if someone's accent is just a little bit off it snaps people out of their suspension of disbelief. It's very strange that people log onto that instead of that someone's flying. I just wish it weren't so, because there are lots of extraordinary performances being discounted at the first fence on the basis of something really trivial."
Brunette Williams donned a blonde wig for Now Is Good - and was surprised at how the change made her feel.
"It was a bit of a release, I've always been dark-haired and I've never had the courage to go blonde, so it was really fun just to whack on a wig and see what happened," she said.
"I don't know whether I became a bit more sort of animated and flirty or people treated me in a way that was more animated and flirty but I suppose blondes do have more fun."