| ELLE FANNING sheds some light on 'SUPER 8'... |
| Written by Shahlin Graves |
| Wednesday, 08 June 2011 11:24 |
 ELLE FANNING loves The Like, Florence + The Machine, and Alexa Chung. It's her dream to one day visit Paris - she's a big believer in romance - and it's also on her bucket list to someday be cast in a film alongside her older sister Dakota, who she considers her main role-model. Elle ends every sentence with an excited giggle as if you're long-lost childhood friends. If I were thirteen-years-old, we would be best friends. Last seen as Cleo in Sofia Coppola's 'Somewhere', the younger Fanning sister has spent the last ten years building a career for herself independent of Dakota, having come a long way since her very first onscreen role as a younger version of her sister's character in 'I Am Sam' at the age of two. Elle has since acted in 'The Curious Case Of Benjamin Button', 'The Door In The Floor', 'Babel', and even voiced a main character in the English language version of Hayao Miyazaki's 'My Neighbor Totoro'. Calling from Sydney, while in Australia to promote the upcoming release of J.J. ABRAMS' new film 'SUPER 8' - which she hopes will be an 'E.T.' or 'The Goonies' for our generation - Fanning talks me through her experience of playing tomboy ALICE DAINARD and her favourite memories from filming, to her newfound appreciation for the seventies, and the perfect happenstance of her working with STEVEN SPIELBERG at the exact same age that Dakota did...  COUP DE MAIN: Hi Elle! How's it going over in Australia? ELLE FANNING: It's great! Really good. CDM: Hopefully one day, you will get to visit New Zealand... ELLE: I know! That would be fun. I've never been there before. CDM: Your new film 'Super 8' will be out in cinemas in less than a week now. You must be very excited! ELLE: I am very excited - VERY! <laughs> Yes!! CDM: For someone who knows nothing about the film, how would you describe 'Super 8' to them? ELLE: Well, when you see the trailer it definitely has a lot of action in it, but I think that there's a lot more to it, definitely. It has a touching story. It's about first love and friendship! You go on this journey with these six friends and the events change their lives forever. And it also has to do with the relationship between father and son, and father and daughter as well. CDM: How did your character - Alice Dainard - in 'Super 8' differ to your past film-roles? ELLE: I went from 'Somewhere' which was a really small movie - there weren't many crew members and Sofia, she's very quiet. And then you go to 'Super 8' which was a huge crew and J.J.'s on a big microphone talking really loud and there are explosions all during the scenes. They're total opposites and I had never experienced those two extremes before, so that was really fun to go from one to the other.  CDM: What was it like playing Alice? ELLE: It was really fun! It was definitely great, because I was the only girl with all these guys <laughs> and we had a really good time. Alice is definitely the tough girl. She's the leader of all of them - and she sort of had to grow up really fast because of her not-so-great Dad. When the boys ask her to come and do this film with them, it's more of an escape from her father because she doesn't want to spend her whole Summer with him in their house. CDM: Do you personally have anything in common with Alice? ELLE: I think that she can definitely play with the guys, and I can definitely hang out with the boys and just be one of them - so that's what we have in common mostly, for sure. CDM: One of my favourite things about 'Super 8' is the innocent relationship between Alice and Joe Lamb. You got to play a damsel in distress for part of the film - that's pretty romantic! ELLE: Yes! I think the romantic part was one of the key parts of the whole movie. I love that about it - that it has more to it than just an action film. One scene you'll be screaming and scared, and the next one you'll be crying and laughing - it has all of them [emotions].  CDM: Do you personally think that romance is still alive, or dead? ELLE: I think it is still alive because my parents met and have known each other since second grade! My Mom has always been in love with my Dad <laughs> and they're still together and everything. CDM: Since your sister Dakota worked with Steven Spielberg on 'War Of The Worlds', did you talk to her when you found out that you'd also be working with Spielberg? ELLE: She was really excited that I got to, because she was twelve when she did 'War Of The Worlds' and I was twelve when I did 'Super 8'. So we both worked with Steven at the same time! She was very happy. She hasn't read the script of 'Super 8' yet, so she'll be going into the movie and be very surprised. I'm excited to show it to her and she and Steven are really, really close - so, she's happy for me. CDM: What was it like working with J.J. Abrams? ELLE: He is a genius, really. Whenever I watched him on-set, you'd always see his mind thinking... and he's always thinking about the little details in the movie. And that's what I think makes them so special. His mind is always, always working, which is really cool to me. Even when you walk into... when you see Joe, the character's bedroom for the first time and he has all the zombie posters and models - that's just how you'd imagine that J.J.'s room looked like when he was a kid. CDM: Did you ever feel like you were traveling back in time to 1979 each time you arrived on-set? ELLE: Yeah, it really felt like that! We were in West Virginia filming in this really small town [Weirton], which sort of felt like the seventies anyway. Then, being in all the clothes, you really felt like you were just there. That was so fun for me! I love vintage-everything. I remember going to the wardrobe-fitting for the first time and seeing all the cool high-waisted jeans and halter-tops - and that style is coming back anyway - so I loved that! CDM: I loved the outfit you wore while shooting the boys' zombie movie. ELLE: That was cool. That was really neat. That was a pretty dress! CDM: Did you get to keep anything from the set? ELLE: Actually, we all got our bikes. At the end of the movie, J.J. gave us all our vintage bikes. So I have that!  CDM: If you could add an extra scene to 'Super 8', what would you include and why? ELLE: Wow, that's so difficult! I love the scenes when all the boys are on the sidewalk and they're waiting for me to come up and they're singing and acting really funny. I would add even more of those really funny scenes, because they're so great! They just seem so natural and they're just so funny. You really get to know their characters in that way, each one of them. CDM: What is your favourite memory from filming 'Super 8'? ELLE: It's hard [to choose]... one of the scenes that we did in the diner, was one of the funniest scenes I've ever done. We were all crammed into this little booth - J.J. included - and I couldn't stop laughing, none of us could, J.J. was crying-laughing. I actually physically had to curl up and turn around to actually get through the different scenes. CDM: Who was your favourite cast member to work with? ELLE: Definitely all of the boys. They're all just so like their characters in the movie. They were so unique and they have totally different personalities and it was so fun to see them every day. It's very easy to make me laugh and they were very silly - we had a great time together. How we are on-screen is basically how we were off. You sort of go away from the film knowing that they'll all be friends forever - and that's how we are. We will be friends forever. CDM: What was your favourite thing about filming 'Super 8'? ELLE: I love that I got to put the zombie make-up on. That was so, so fun. I remember going in the make-up trailer and [seeing] all the blood, it was so cool. I had a great time with that. And also, seeing whenever Steven came on-set. Seeing him and J.J. work together was something that I'll never forget. That collaboration... I'm glad that I got to witness it, that was cool.  CDM: What are the top five things that you most want to do before your turn twenty-one? ELLE: Dance at The Paris Opera Ballet, because I go to ballet five days a week. I would love to go to a fashion show one day, because I never have. Three more! I would love to go to Paris. I have to go to Paris. I would love to go there, that's like my dream. Those three... two more. I would love to work with my sister in a movie one day - like play sisters or something like that, because we've never been on-screen at the same time together. The last one... oh my gosh, it's so hard! I have four... <laughs> Meet Katy Perry!! CDM: You're a big Katy Perry fan? ELLE: I am! I went to the Met Ball with my sister and I met Florence Welch [of Florence + The Machine] and Beyonce - I wanted to meet them SO bad. And now, I really want to meet Katy Perry so bad. CDM: I LOVE FLORENCE WELCH! She's one of my favourite people in the whole wide world. ELLE: She's one of mine too!! She's incredible. I want her to come out with a new single, a new song. CDM: Florence has just released a cover of a Buddy Holly song online, you should YouTube it! ELLE: Oh wow! She's amazing. CDM: What other music do you like listening to? ELLE: I like very indie music as well. There's this modern-day group, it's called The Like - they're an all-girl-band. They're very sixties-influenced. I love Bob Dylan. Also, I like Vampire Weekend. I sort of like all the ones that you wouldn't necessarily know 'em. I like Phoenix. I like all of those bands! CDM: I love The Like too! I flew to Australia earlier this year to see them live. ELLE: Oh my gosh! I love them! CDM: I don't want to break your heart, but The Like just recently announced that they've gone on an indefinite hiatus... ELLE: Oh my god, they did?! That sucks!! CDM: Who and where do you draw your fashion style from? ELLE: Alexa Chung! She's like my style icon. I love all vintage-everything, really. I love fashion. I've always loved it. And the fifties, I've always loved. But after working on 'Super 8' and seeing all the seventies clothes, now I'm really into Twiggy and 'The Virgin Suicides' - like that style, right now. That's sort of my style inspiration!  CDM: If you could be any Disney Princess, who would you choose to be and why? ELLE: Oh my gosh eek! Probably, Snow White? I've always loved her. I've always felt like my face looks like her, but if I had black hair I would look [exactly] like her. I've always felt like that - we have the same nose! <laughs> I love her outfits. And she sings so pretty and she has a little red bow. SO CUTE. I've been her for Halloween. CDM: Name your five favourite films of all time? ELLE: I love 'The Seven Year Itch' with Marilyn Monroe - that was the first film that I saw and fell in love with. I love 'The Devil Wears Prada' for sure. That's like a go-to movie, it's a sleepover movie with all my friends. I love 'The Virgin Suicides'. I love 'Marie Antoinette' - it's such a pretty movie. And I love 'Dumbo'! CDM: 'Dumbo'! Great choices. ELLE: THANK YOU! CDM: Which actresses inspire you the most? ELLE: Of course Jodie Foster. I think she's so inspired - she's such an inspiration to all of the young actresses because she was so amazing when she was young, and is still so amazing now, so her. And I love 'The Devil Wears Prada', I love Meryl Streep. CDM: What can you tell me about the next films you'll be in? ELLE: I did the Francis Coppola film called 'Twixt Now and Sunrise' and then I also did a movie called 'We Bought A Zoo' with Cameron Crowe. CDM: Having worked with both Sofia and Francis Coppola, did you notice any similarities or differences in how they directed? ELLE: Their sets are both very small and the same in that way, but Sofia is definitely more quiet, and Francis is like this big Italian guy - so in that way they're different, but they're both amazing. And you see how Sofia got so good from her Dad, watching him - he's a legend. He's amazing! CDM: If you weren't acting, what would you want to be doing instead? ELLE: Since I go to ballet five days a week, I would probably... that's the hardest thing that I'll ever do, is ballet. Because you are either good or bad. But if I wasn't acting, when I get older I would probably really concentrate on that, but it's really hard. I still am though, maybe I could... maybe in a movie I could dance, or something like that.  CDM: Do you consider yourself a role-model for other young girls, at all? ELLE: I'm only thirteen, so I have role-models! But I've sort of experienced... my sister has always been my role-model because I've always seen her. She's been acting my whole life and she's grown up on film, so it's neat for me to get to travel around and do interviews like this, because I've always seen her doing it. CDM: What's your favourite thing about Dakota? ELLE: That's so hard... I just love her so much. She's definitely very different - she has such a different personality than me. She just loves everything. It's so hard [to pick] because she's my sister and I love everything about her! CDM: Tell me something no-one else knows about you... ELLE: My family knows this about me, but... I bite my nails so bad. They're awful! My nails are so ugly. I need to stop biting them. CDM: What is the best advice that you've ever been given and by whom? ELLE: When I worked on 'Super 8', Steven gave all of the kids advice and he said that you have to have a balance between your normal life and movies. He really wanted us all to stay in school and live your normal life, and then have movies as well, but you've got to have the balance. CDM: Lastly, what advice would you give to other people wanting to pursue their dreams? ELLE: Just stick to it and never give up! If people say "no" to you and it's something you really want to do, keep going and you'll succeed.  |
