💭 Elle Fanning for VOGUE Japan
This article first appeared in the VOGUE JAPAN November 2018 Issue No. 231.
ELLE FANNING
VOGUE Japan November 2018.
“Come on over and take a look Pamela,” said photographers Mert and Marcus as they shot Ella Fanning for the cover of this issue. The moniker wasn’t a slip of the tongue, it made sense, because the woman in the photos was not the girl that we have all come to find delightful in films like Maleficent, Super 8 or We Bought a Zoo. Instead the blond bombshell looking back at us, dressed in the latest resort collection from Miu Miu, had the same sexy playfulness of a young Pamela Anderson, Brigitte Bardot or even Claudia Schiffer. The images showed Fanning to be in that fleeting sweet spot in a woman’s life; where innocence swirls with fully formed femininity for a powerfully potent cocktail.
Fanning, who is 20 and has been acting for 17 years, has already started to explore this new power. Recently taking on roles in films with very adult subject matter such as The Neon Demon, The Begulied, Galveston and Mary Shelly - a film about the life of the author of Frankenstein, which included Fanning’s first on screen love scene. But even that celluloid milestone didn’t seem to faze Fanning, “It’s like a rite of passage I guess. As you get older, it’s like it’s going to eventually happen. I never really thought that much about it because it was so technical getting that scene right,” she said.
The actress’s comfort level with such a scene probably has to do a lot with the way she approaches acting. She has always been surrounded by her close knit family on set. While her older sister Dakota Fanning (an accomplished actress in her own right) has been there to help point her little sister in the right direction, even if their acting styles are completely different. “People say that we work differently,” explained Fanning who said she would love to act with her sister one day and that the two of them are actively looking for a project to share. “I don’t really know her process. But for me, I am someone who really lives in my head. I am always reading and thinking a ton. Also I don’t really learn my lines until like the night before a scene. I kind of like to keep them feeling fresh in my mind,” she added.
Maybe it’s this freshness, or the aforementioned sweet spot that Fanning currently finds herself in that makes her the perfect ambassador for Miu Miu. She has already shot advertising campaigns for the brand and she opened the Fall/Winter 2018 runway show in Paris. “Oh, that definitely made me nervous,” Fanning admitted. “I’ve had dreams before, vivid dreams of walking a runway. It’s also something I used to do when I was a kid, and I would make everyone sit in the house and watch me just walk in different outfits and stuff. So I was very excited about that show and Mrs. Prada made me feel really comfortable, like a proper model backstage.”
Fanning is a fan of Miu Miu in real life too. She has been spotted wearing the brand’s distinctive mix of happy go lucky prints, brightly colored separates and rhinestone embellished outfits numerous times over the years. She has always loved fashion that helps her stand out and likes to pick out outfits for her friends. “I remember we would have Free Dress Fridays at school. We had to wear uniforms, and on Fridays you could wear whatever you wanted. I would wear very strange things sometimes,” she said adding that she would top off her eye catching school outfits by wearing platform shoes so that her 5’8 frame looked even taller.
VOGUE Japan November 2018.
Standing tall on screen is something Fanning is also learning to do thanks to the interesting career choices she is making. In a field where there are very few female directors, Fanning’s filmography is filled with some of the best in the business, like Sophia Coppola, Mélanie Laurent and Haifaa Al-Mansour. “I’ve been lucky. You know, I didn’t just choose to work with them, they also chose to work with me too. And one of the first movies where people started recognizing me for me was Somewhere directed by Sofia. She gave me such a big opportunity and I remember being on her film set, run by her, the respect that she has… Her sets are very unique and special and if I ever direct something one day, I would want to emulate the environment that she creates,” said Fanning.
VOGUE Japan November 2018.
While directing might still be a distant dream for the actress, there is one other skill set she seems even more eager to explore. Fanning just became the face of Tiffany jewelry. Her first commercial campaign for the brand, which is a modern day take on the famed opening scene from the film Breakfast at Tiffany, shows the actress in a Tiffany blue hoody and diamond tiara and features her voice softly singing the iconic song Moon River, that is the bedrock of the film’s soundtrack.
“When we were shooting the video I was singing the song, humming it off camera and then Francis Lawrence, the director, came up and was like ‘Hey I have an idea, why don’t you just sing the song?’ because he has had experience with Jennifer Lawrence on Hunger Games where she sang the song and it became a crazy hit,” recounted Fanning. “I think that if I wasn’t an actress, I’d be a pop star, like I love singing, I sing all around the house!”.
Fans of Fanning will get to enjoy more of her melodic voice in the upcoming film Teen Spirit, which she just completed with rumored boyfriend, actor Max Minghella. He also wrote and directed the movie, which is about a shy teenager who dreams of being a pop star to escape her broken family. “I sing five songs on that. I guess this is the year of me singing. It’s going to be a surprise to some people but my family, and my close friends are happy that I finally get to share my singing with people,” said Fanning.
Looking at Fanning as she sat on a bridge overlooking pond feeding ducks in a bucolic country home, getting the last shots of the day for this issue’s cover spread its easy to imagine her breaking into a love song. Instead, the only musicality to be had is the sound of her laughter as she warmly says good-bye to everyone on the crew before pulling on a cream colored slip dress and flats. Pamela is gone and Fanning is simply a young girl, once again.
