Elle Fanning is one of the most talked-about women in the world, with the 25-year-old actress a firm household name since she started her acting career aged two.
Since her child star days, Fanning has gone on to front films from Maleficent and All the Bright Places to Super 8 and The Neon Demon. But despite her Hollywood evolution, her child star years did play a big role in her growth, with Fanning opening up about the experience during a recent Hollywood Reporter roundtable.
The roundtable interview saw actors Sheryl Lee Ralph, Ayo Edebiri, Natasha Lyonne, Jenna Ortega, Devery Jacobs and Elle Fanning discuss their careers, opening up about their reservations when taking certain roles and their experiences fighting stereotypes.
With several of the women having started their careers as children, they also discussed navigating Hollywood from a very young age, with Fanning sharing one particularly “damaging” experience with the table.
“I was very protected, I have an amazing manager and agent who’ve been with me since I was 8 or 9, same people, which is [rare],” Fanning stated before recalling the anecdote.
“I’ve never told this story, but I was trying out for a movie. I didn’t get it. I don’t even think they ever made it, but it was a father-daughter road trip comedy,” she explained.
“I didn’t hear from my agents because they wouldn’t tell me things like this – that filtration system is really important because there’s probably a lot more damaging comments that they filtered – but this one got to me. I was 16 years old, and a person said, ‘Oh, she didn’t get the father-daughter road trip comedy because she’s unfuckable.’”
She continued: “It’s disgusting. And I can laugh at it now, like, ‘What a disgusting pig!’”
Opening up about her reaction at the time, she explained: “I was always immensely confident, but of course you’re growing up in the public eye, and it’s weird. I’ll look at paparazzi photos from when I was 12 and think, ‘Is that a good thing to see such a mirror of yourself at that age?’ I don’t feel like it damaged me, but it definitely made me very aware of myself.”
We will continue to update this story.