Elle Fanning Talks Control in Hollywood, Playing 'Supernova' in Porter Edit by Milan Zrnic

Actor Elle Fanning steps into the pages of Porter Edit’s April 4, 2022 issue. Fanning is styled by Coco Cassibba in an artist’s palette of colorful midtones, tailored silhouettes from Acne Studios, Bottega Veneta, Gucci, Isabel Marant, Jacquemus, Loewe and more. Milan Zrnic [IG] is behind the lens with Martha Hayes on the interview for ‘Supernova’.

From Catherine the Great to ‘The Girl From Plainville’

Elle Fanning may be the younger sister to Dakota but she’s an old soul, writes Hayes. Now 25, Elle enters the age zone where she can play both a mother and a school girl. Her role as Catherine the Great, the 18th-century Empress of Russia, is confirmed for a third season in the satirical drama ‘The Great’.

In a dramatic juxtaposition, Elle Fanning also plays the lead in ‘The Girl From Plainville’, an eight-part Hulu series focused on what came to be known as the ‘texting suicide case’. American teenager Conrad Henri Roy III committed suicide in 2014 at age 18.

Investigators discovered that his girlfriend Michelle Carter, then 17, had sent him more than 1,000 texts in what became known as the ‘texting suicide case’. Carter was charged with involuntary manslaughter and convicted.

The actual event and legal case against Michelle Carter has many lawyers as an exploration of the mental health of young people and the impact that social media can have on young minds. “It was a very intense place to live in that headspace. It felt very full-on,” Fanning tells Hayes.

Elle Fanning in Control

The Dakota sisters set up a production company Lewellen Pictures — named after the family dog — making Elle Fanning the executive producer on both of her current projects. Fanning admits that learning the business side is a learning curve, but she echoes the beliefs of many Hollywood women including Reese Witherspoon and Nicole Kidman, also mentioned by Hayes, that they need to control their own destinies as much as possible.

Advised by both Witherspoon and Kidman, Fanning is guided by their message: “Acquire your own material; find what you love and try to make it happen.’ We can break the mold of, ‘Am I going to get picked for this part?’ and tell our own stories.”

Fanning concludes the interview with strong words meant to create back bone in others, while also embracing the reality of Hollywood.

“You don’t dictate your own success in this industry; it’s judged by other people, which I’ve had to wrap my head around because I’m a very independent person and I don’t want to be put into a box of what other people think I am.”