The actress celebrates her coming of age with much more mature roles like the one she plays in Achieving your dream, already in theaters.
Elle Fanning (Georgia, 1998) was seven years old when she filmed Babel and she met the Mexican director Alejandro G. Inarritu. With him, 14 years after her, at 21, she walked hand in hand in her last great film and media moment, as a jury at the Cannes Film Festival last May. The actress has grown up in front of the eyes of the whole world: she was only two years old when she made her film debut playing the little version of her sister, Dakota, in I am Sam.
Elle Fanning's childish face and the innocence that she exudes from her have allowed her to interpret the entire range of roles for children and adolescents, even being a princess in Maleficent (in October she repeats with the sequel). But now, finally, a new world of roles with a certain maturity is opening up before her. This August 2, she premieres Reaching Your Dream, in which she plays Violet, an aspiring pop star, and Elle assures that she sees herself reflected in that journey of growth as an artist. In addition, the film has allowed him to fulfill a personal dream: to sing.
Since when does she know that she is good at singing?
It's always been something he knew he could do but had never put into practice in real life. I was sure he would do it in a movie. Since I was little I knew that one way or another I was going to dedicate myself to show business, because I loved to sing around the house, while my sister yelled at me for her to shut me up. She wanted to be an actress or a pop singer. And then the acting opportunity came up and now I'm a pop star in a movie… I just hope I haven't ruined the songs I cover for her fans [laughs].
In the film you dare with songs by Robyn, Katy Perry, or Ellie Goulding, is it the music you listen to?
Yeah, who doesn't listen to pop music? Everyone does it, even if they don't recognize it, because it's catchy. Pop is the musical genre of young people. When I was in high school I wanted to know every last pop song, I wanted to be cool. But I also listen to a lot of other genres and I tried to fit them a bit into Violet.
In addition to trying music, she has made a name for herself starring in fashion and beauty campaigns, she is already a benchmark.
Many of those jobs I see as a movie. Yes, I'm selling something and I don't forget about it, but I also see it as an interpretation.
From Super 8, perhaps your first most important film, to the present, with outstanding premieres ahead [it will be Catherine the Great in the series The Great, which Hulu is preparing], do you feel that much has changed?
They say that each character teaches you things, you take something from the director, from the team. And it is true. Super 8, for example, is one of the most precious, I think it was the first time that people saw me as an actress when they began to recognize me for my work and not for my sister. It's funny because I see my growth in the film: Achieving Your Dream I shot it when I was still a teenager, but it opens when I'm 21 years old. Now a whole new world of roles has opened up for me as a young woman, it's not all teenagers or kids anymore. I'm not always the youngest person on set anymore, like up to now. It's rare to start not being, to see others occupying that place. That was me until not so long ago: the girl with her mother.
I guess it was the best thing about having my sister around her, growing up with me, and doing the same. I have had a wonderful childhood because I have traveled a lot and met amazing people. This movie is about achieving your dreams, and that's something our mom did for us, because Dakota and I were born in Conyers, Georgia, and we were meant to play sports professionally there, just like my parents or my grandfather. My mother was the one who realized what our ambition was and she took us both to Los Angeles, she dropped everything and stayed with us until we achieved it. Because if you want to be good at something… I don't know, you can start acting at any age, but I see it with an athlete's mentality: the more you practice, the better you'll be; the younger you start, the more experiences you will have and the better you will do.
