Dakota Fanning doesn't feel like herself while filming for long periods as the same character.

The 20-year-old star insists she finds it difficult to maintain her own identity while acting because she begins to think like her alter-ego would.

Talking on US Chat Show 'The View', she said: ''In this movie ['Night Moves'] for example ... We weren't really washing hair because these people wouldn't, so everything was getting tangled and messy.

Also, you're kind of inhabiting another person and thinking for that other person. Halfway through I don't feel like myself because my routine is not for me it's for another character.''

The blonde beauty - who was catapulted to the spotlight at the tender age of seven for her breakthrough performance in 2001's 'I Am Sam' - will hit the big screen later this year in 'Franny', which is in post-production, alongside 'Divergent' hunk Theo James.

Meanwhile, her sister Elle, 16, recently hit the big screen as Princess Aurora in Disney's 'Maleficent' where she stars opposite Angelina Jolie.