Elle fanning
a child actor no more, EllE Fanning has an eclectic double bill on the horizon – playing an alien in how To Talk To Girls at Parties and Frankenstein creator Mary Shelley in a truth-seeking biopic. Total Film meets the all-american girl who has the film w
TF meets the child star who’s grown up to have an enviably cool career.
Sofia Coppola, David Fincher,
J.J. Abrams, Alejandro G. Iñárritu, Sally Potter, Cameron Crowe, Nicolas Winding Refn… at the ripe old age of 19, Georgia-born actress Elle Fanning has the kind of CV that makes Jennifer Lawrence and Saoirse Ronan look like late bloomers, and she’s only just getting started. “I’ve got a lot of room to grow, and a lot more characters to explore,” Fanning says with a smile that could stop a 747, shoulder-length blonde hair swaying in the wind as she shares a sofa with TF on the fancy rooftop terrace of a Cannes hotel. “There are so many different people in the world, not even people – aliens. So many beings and souls to explore.”
Fanning has the extraterrestrial on her mind as she’s in Cannes for the premiere of John Cameron Mitchell’s certifiable comedy romance How To Talk To Girls At Parties, in which she stars as Zan, an alien who runs away with a human boy to experience the punk subculture of ’70s Croydon. In two days she’ll be walking the red carpet again for The Beguiled, Sofia Coppola’s sexually charged Deep South drama, in which Fanning plays a hormonal young woman who pines after Colin Farrell’s wounded soldier. As far as film projects go, they’re polar opposites, and that’s how Fanning likes it. “Even last year, with The Neon Demon, it was a very different film for some people,” she says, with another flash of that cherubic smile. “And that’s what I try to do – pick as different parts as I can.”
As Zan, that meant embracing her funny side. “I haven’t really explored that before,” Fanning ponders. “That’s something John brought out in me.” Describing the script as an “immediate yes”, Fanning found it wasn’t just comedy he brought out in her. “I also got to be a punk queen and perform!” Adding another string to her bow, she sang live to a crowd of London punks recruited by Hedwig director Cameron Mitchell. “We thought it’d be more punk to just do it,” she says with a giggle. “So that was a little scary. You’re hoping you’re not a poser.”
Looking out over the Cannes Croisette, Fanning is anything but a poser here. Dressed in a loose-fitting, sky-blue silk two-piece emblazoned with George Stubbs’ painting A Horse Frightened By A Lion, and standing at a statuesque 5ft 9in (minus heels), it’s almost inconceivable that such a seasoned actress is just 19 years old. There’s an air of Golden Age grace to Fanning, who points to Marilyn Monroe as a role model (“She’s got this quality in her. There’s a lot of depth underneath”) and expresses a particular interest in traditional Hollywood glamour, often being closely involved with her look on screen.
“When you think of Gwyneth Paltrow in The Royal Tenenbaums and the way she looks, you remember it,” she says, her eyes widening at the thought. “I think about that – what can I give my character to make them memorable, or show something about themselves without having to say it?”
FOREVER YOUNG
This attention to detail, alongside seemingly preternatural intuition and professional fearlessness, means Fanning has become one of the most in-demand actors of her generation. In the sometimes tricky transition from child to adult star, The Beguiled marked a turning point – the first film in which her grandmother, Fanning’s usual companion, didn’t accompany her to set. Not that Fanning’s new-found freedom will affect her choices. “I try not to think about it differently than I would if I was younger. It’s not like I choose anything to prove something to someone else.” In other words, while The Neon Demon and The Beguiled could have ushered in a new R-rated era, Fanning won’t be pulling a Lindsay Lohan anytime soon. “I think it’s very important to maintain your childlike quality,” she says. “That’s what makes actors who have that twinkle or really vivid imagination the best. You don’t want to be something you’re not.”
Even by Hollywood standards, Fanning started young, following in the footsteps of her big sister Dakota, aged just two when she played the infant version of Dakota’s character in Sean Penn’s disability drama I Am Sam. Growing up on film sets, and never taking a formal acting class,
she possesses a naturalism many spend years trying to master. Born into a family of athletes, Fanning came perilously close to a life on the court rather than the big screen. “My mum wanted us to be tennis players!” she says, slapping her hands on her thighs. But the Fanning sisters wouldn’t be swayed, their parents moving the family from Georgia to LA when Dakota got her break at six years old. “I just wanted to try out what she was doing, because it looked like she was having a lot of fun,” Fanning smiles. The pair have yet to share a scene together (not for a lack of trying – they were both cast in My Sister’s Keeper but pulled out when Dakota refused to shave her head for the part), but sibling rivalry has never been an issue. “She’s very motherly,” Fanning says of her sister. “She’s very protective, which is nice.”
Much like Dakota, it didn’t take long for Elle to graduate from familyfriendly (Daddy Day Care, Because Of Winn-Dixie) to adult-focused fare, with roles in Reservation Road and The Curious Case Of Benjamin Button, as well as turning point performances in Sofia Coppola’s Somewhere, as the daughter of Stephen Dorff’s disillusioned actor, and in J.J. Abrams’ Super 8, in which she dazzled as cool kid Alice.
Despite her eminent talent, however, Fanning is humble to a fault, even questioning the idea that she’s an actor at all. “I don’t know if
I’ve ever felt, ‘Ooh, yes, I’m an actor.’” A preposterous statement, but one that comes from a place of truth. She credits Sally Potter’s Ginger & Rosa, which Fanning starred in at 13, as the film that turned her into a professional. “That film made me really grow, not only as an actress but as a woman,” she recalls, leaning in slightly as though she has some huge secret to reveal. “I had my first kiss ever in that movie. I had an English accent which I’d never done before. I had red hair. So I just didn’t feel like me. Then something clicked: ‘Oh, that’s what it’s supposed to feel like.’”
Maleficent followed soon after, which Fanning relished. “I was like, ‘I’m Sleeping Beauty in a Disney film!’ So I did really enjoy that.” But the actress has otherwise steered clear of blockbusters, even skipping the YA wave that sucked every actress under 25 into its orbit, and has built up indie credibility that would see her crowned the Queen of Sundance, if she wasn’t already the Princess of Cannes (her Beguiled co-star Nicole Kidman currently holds the title of Queen).
“I do love independent films, and the adrenaline of them,” she enthuses. “You don’t have much money. It’s like 26 days you have to shoot all this stuff, and they’re these amazing, special memories you have. It’s like a moment in time. That, I do enjoy.”
When it comes to moments, Fanning’s next movie, Mary Shelley, couldn’t be more timely. The story of a talented woman who finds her seminal work credited to a man, it was practically made for the #MeToo era. “It’s a period piece, but it’s also very modern,” Fanning explains. “What fascinated me was that it’s a struggling artist, but it’s a woman struggling artist, which you don’t see very often. And when I filmed the movie I was about to turn 18. This was the last movie that I had to do school on the set. It was a milestone movie for me. I feel like I grew up a lot after the movie was over. I really felt wiser and more mature. I felt like I learned a lot from Mary.” Among the lessons: avoid corsets at all costs. “Ugh, yeah. Bel [Powley, co-star] and I had a revolt against the corsets,” she says, shoulders sagging at the memory. “The style of that time, the dresses were Empire waist, so you didn’t see our true waist anyway. We were like, ‘Why are we wearing these?’ But you walk a different way and sit a different way in them. So we eventually did have to wear them.”
ANYTHING BUT BORING
Restrictive fashion was par for the course with The Neon Demon, for which Fanning made her Cannes debut in 2015. Her most “adventurous” part yet, the twisted story of beauty, obsession and death debuted to a smattering of boos at the first press screening, followed by a volley of effusive reviews.
“It was the best experience to come to Cannes with Nicolas [Winding Refn],” she says. “He’s a close friend, so it was the most collaborative movie I’ve done. We changed the ending halfway through. He films in chronological order. He’s a true artist. He wants to put on a show. And that’s fun, to be a part of that show.” Despite the divisive reaction, Fanning has no regrets. “It’s nice for people to hate your movie or to love your movie. That’s cool. You don’t want it to be an in-between, because then it’s boring.”
If there’s one thing Fanning isn’t, it’s boring. Coming up she has Mélanie Laurent’s Galveston (penned by True Detective’s Nic Pizzolatto), Woody Allen’s A Rainy Day In New York (which may or may not see the light of day given recent accusations against the filmmaker), apocalyptic two-hander
I Think We’re Alone Now with Peter Dinklage, and Teen Spirit, in which Fanning goes Brit again as a wannabe pop star from the Isle of Wight. With two further projects in pre-production, Fanning shows no signs of slowing down anytime soon. “Ever since I was young, I’ve felt like this is so a part of me,” she says. “It’s like a part of my body. I hope I can do it forever.”
HOW TO TALK TO GIRLS AT PARTIES OPENS 11 MAY. MARY SHELLEY OPENS 6 JULY.
‘i think it’s very important to maintain your childlike quality’