Elle Fanning missed out on a role in the past due to social media.
In a new episode of the Happy Sad Confused podcast, the actress said that the part was for a big franchise movie, but she didn’t get it because her social media following wasn’t big enough. Fanning currently has 6.2 million IG followers.
“I did try out for…I’m not going to say what it was, but I didn’t get a part once for something big because—it might not have just been this reason, but this was the feedback that I heard—was because I didn’t have enough Instagram followers at the time,” Fanning said around the 32:40 minute mark. “So that was a little like…I firmly don’t believe in not getting a part [for that]. It was for a bigger thing, a franchise thing.”
Elsewhere, she discussed whether or not she felt pressured to appear in large studio franchises to remain “relevant” in her industry. She has previously appeared as the character Aurora in Disney’s two Maleficent movies.
“I don’t feel that [pressure]. I don’t,” Fanning said. She admitted that while getting a role in a Marvel, Star Wars, or DC film “does something” for actors, she also said, “But you also don’t know if they’re going to work sometimes, which is scary.”
Season 3 of Fanning’s show, The Great premieres on Friday on Hulu. She stars alongside Nicholas Hoult, who has lost out on big franchise films like Top Gun: Maverick and Matt Reeves’ The Batman. Robert Pattinson was chosen for the lead role instead of Hoult.
“I didn’t have to go through what Nick did…they made him try the [Batman] suit on. You need a balance. If you want to do your indie work, especially in producing now…[having a big franchise] does make you breathe better,” Fanning said.
