Elle Fanning, on the cover: “I’ve always been curious and wanted to try every genre. Sometimes it can be a risk, but you’ll never know if you’re good at something unless you try.”

American actress moves between commercial and auteur projects with the ease and confidence of someone who has grown up in front of a camera. Maybe that’s why it’s impossible to look away.

Elle Fanning logs into the video call right on time for this interview, speaking from a bright, white room in a residence somewhere in Los Angeles. Just behind her, hanging on the wall, is the iconic photograph Slim Aarons—probably the person who best captured bourgeois hedonism—took of his wife Rita floating beneath a Christmas tree in their pool in 1954, in the very same city where the actress now is. “I have a pool. Maybe I’ll try that next Christmas,” she says with a smile, turning toward the image. Fanning probably didn’t overthink the decision to buy that piece, but it’s easy to understand why she did: it’s relaxed, authentic, playful, carefree, and a little surreal. Just like her.

These days, the actress is wrapping up the final stretch of the wonderful journey that Sentimental Value, the film by Norwegian director Joachim Trier, has been—a film that has earned her her first Oscar nomination and also given her a kind of family in her castmates, with whom she celebrates every milestone the movie reaches. Although at the time this issue goes to press it’s still impossible to know whether Fanning will take home the statuette for Best Supporting Actress, simply getting here is already a turning point in her career. And that’s saying a lot considering her big-screen debut came at just three years old, when she played the younger version of her sister Dakota Fanning’s character in I Am Sam (2001).

“I still can’t believe I’m nominated—I really didn’t expect it. When I found out, I was at my sister’s house. We’d gone out the night before and stayed up pretty late. I was in bed, but my phone kept lighting up. Half asleep, I checked it and saw all these congratulatory messages and thought, ‘The movie did it.’ Then I got a call confirming the news. I started walking around the house in shock. Dakota and my mom came out and we started screaming and hugging… It was a very emotional day,” she recalls of that morning that changed everything—no matter what happens on March 16.

Even though her role in the film is a supporting one, Sentimental Value has marked a before-and-after in her career. “That shoot was very special. Joachim creates a space where all his actors can give their best, open up, and feel safe enough to be vulnerable. I think all his films—and this one in particular—carry a lot of emotional weight and demand a lot from you. And even though the film deals with quite dark themes in a way, it’s made with a lot of lightness, so the atmosphere on set was very joyful. I spent most of my time with Stellan [Skarsgård]. He’s very funny and playful, almost like a father figure. Our first scenes were in Deauville, on the beach, filmed during the town’s film festival. That relationship grew, and now we’re like a traveling circus, all together doing awards season since Cannes, where the film premiered last year. We’ve done tons of interviews together, and I’m happy I got to know Inga [Ibsdotter Lilleaas] and Renate [Reinsve] better during the press tour, since we didn’t share many scenes. It’s really beautiful to be in this together because the film is so ensemble-driven, and it’s amazing to see everyone getting recognition,” she says.

This happy encounter with auteur cinema will continue with the upcoming release of Rosebush Pruning, by Brazilian director Karim Aïnouz, an international production in which Fanning shares the screen with, among others, Elena Anaya. Filming took her to Barcelona—“The food there was incredible!” she recalls enthusiastically.

“I think the main difference in films like Sentimental Value or Rosebush Pruning is that, obviously, I don’t speak the language used on set. I usually pay close attention to what everyone says, but on those shoots I couldn’t. Still, that gave me a kind of tunnel vision that was actually very useful: I could focus on my own world without worrying about what was happening behind the scenes. I knew Joachim and Karim would tell me what I needed to know, so I liked that feeling,” she explains, before adding: “Many of my favorite filmmakers are foreign, but in the end there’s no difference: a good director is a good director.”

Although Elle has worked with many directors over her long career, one name inevitably comes up repeatedly in the conversation: Sofia Coppola. Fanning has worked with her twice so far—on Somewhere (2010) and The Beguiled (2017)—and says she would love to collaborate again in the future.

“She’s simply unique. You watch one of her films and, even if you don’t know she directed it, you recognize it because she has such a distinctive perspective that shows in every detail—especially in how she portrays female adolescence. She also trusts her own taste completely—and it’s impeccable. She’s, by far, the most elegant woman I know. And she works with her friends—her whole team is made up of people she’s known for years. She’s extremely loyal. In an industry like this, I really respect people who create that kind of family,” she says.

Even though she may now seem more focused on independent films, the actress continues to alternate those personal projects with openly commercial ones, a quality that says a lot about her open-minded approach to choosing roles.

“I think from the beginning I’ve always been curious and wanted to try every genre. Sometimes it can be a risk, but you’ll never know if you’re good at something unless you try. I like the challenge, and I like feeling a little bit of fear of the unknown before starting a project. And it’s not something I consciously choose. For example, I shot Predator: Badlands and Sentimental Value back-to-back, and they’re completely different films—it just worked out that way. I think it comes from not wanting to be typecast, which I don’t really feel has happened. Well, maybe at the beginning—the industry does try. But whenever that happens, I try to do the opposite and surprise people.”

Amid this constant back-and-forth between different facets of her acting, one presence keeps her grounded: her sister Dakota. The two will star together for the first time in the film adaptation of the bestselling novel The Nightingale, where they will, of course, play sisters. Their bond has also led them to launch a production company together, Lewellen Pictures, where they aim to develop a wide range of projects, with particular attention to stories led by women.

“I think we work really well together: what she’s good at, maybe I’m not as strong in, and where I’m strong, she needs support. We complement each other in an incredible way,” says the younger Fanning about this new role. Producing is something she sees as training for something she hopes to do someday: directing. “I’d love to. Not right now, but maybe in about ten years it could be in my plans. It’s something I’ve dreamed about since I was young, but I don’t know if I’m ready yet. You have to find the right story,” she reveals.

On April 15, Fanning premieres another project bearing her production company’s stamp, Margo Has Money Troubles, an Apple TV+ series in which she plays a young woman in her twenties who becomes pregnant by her professor and must face the many challenges—financial among them, as the title suggests—of early motherhood, leading her to create an OnlyFans account for income.

With a tone that could be described as a dramedy, the story features a cast that includes Michelle Pfeiffer, who plays the protagonist’s somewhat unconventional and very funny mother, and Nicole Kidman in an unexpected role as a professional wrestler.

“I worked with Michelle on Maleficent (2014), and she was also in I Am Sam with Dakota, and later they did The First Lady (2022) together. So she’s been part of our lives for a long time—she’s like a guiding light for my sister and me in this industry. And I feel the same about Nicole. This was the third time we’ve worked together—we did How to Talk to Girls at Parties (2017) and The Beguiled before—and again, she’s someone I feel I can turn to for good advice,” she explains.

These days, the actress is also finalizing the look she’ll wear to the Academy Awards—“It’s being made. In fact, we just made a small change yesterday”—a side obligation of her job that she actually finds fun.

“I’ve always loved fashion. I’ve been a total geek about it since I was little. I used to watch runway shows—first on Style.com, now on Vogue Runway—and I knew all the models’ names. My mom really encouraged it; she always let me choose my clothes, go to thrift stores, and experiment. When I was about seven, I used to wear 1950s swimsuits as if they were jumpsuits out on the street. I had some pretty quirky ideas. At school, sometimes kids would make fun of me, but I also felt like some people appreciated it. For example, Sofia [Coppola] thought it was great, so I didn’t care too much about what people said in the playground,” she recalls.

Those vintage swimsuits were the seed of a passion—vintage clothing—that Fanning pursues with total devotion.

“I love slips and nightgowns from the ’20s and ’30s. They’re so delicate and beautiful. The fabrics, the embroidery—which you hardly see anymore—everything sewn by hand with such care… You don’t see that now, and it melts my heart. I recently found a turquoise Dior suit from the ’60s. It’s my new treasure—I’m so excited. And I also have a black skirt-and-jacket set from Balenciaga, from around 1959. Maybe I’ll wear it for a press event. I love re-wearing dresses on the red carpet. For example, at the Palm Springs Film Festival I wore a vintage sage-green dress—can’t remember the brand—with amazing fabric. I’m always on the hunt for incredible pieces.”

And so, among vintage dresses and Slim Aarons photographs, Fanning looks to the future the only way she knows how: with lightness and joy.

Source: Vogue Spain (Spanish article) | Translated by ChatGPT AI.