InStyle USA - 11.2019

NOVEMBER 2019 InSTYLE  141

’m walking behind Elle Fanning into

L.A.’s Chateau Marmont—not in

a creepy way—and the first thing I

notice is how perfectly, well, Elle

Fanning she is. She’s wearing a cute

plaid pastel minidress and chunky

Gucci slides, and her hair is up in a

topknot. All of it is polished off by a

pair of swinging vintage daisy ear-

rings. She’s also 10 minutes early.

What’s so winning about

Fanning—apart from daisies and

punctuality—is the openness

she radiates wherever she goes. An

un cynical desire to try things, to

perform, to fling herself out into the world. And, of course,

her exuberant embrace of fashion is why she’s on the cover

of this Best Dressed issue. Fanning has worn princess ball

gowns (which she will also sport in Maleficent Mistress

of Evil, out this month), sparkly Rodarte, artsy-girl Miu

Miu, and the crowning glory that was a reinvigorated Dior

New Look at the Cannes Film Festival in May.

On Fanning, though, every look is new.

LAURA BROWN: Everything you do, Elle, you embrace. I

remember when you came to the InStyle Awards [in 2017]

wearing a full-on Versace dress and giggling like you were 6.

ELLE FANNING: [Laughing] Oh my god, I hated the

faux bangs I wore that night so much. But, hey, it was a

costume. It was a Warhol print with Marilyn Monroe,

and I love her, so, obviously, I wore that dress.

LB: It seems like that “I’m going to experience this” feeling

governs you.

EF: Yes, I was always curious and mischievous. Like when

I watched Friends, I loved Phoebe. I loved that she was

gawky. I had a real awkward phase. I grew 12 inches in a

year. I didn’t want to be like everyone else in school. There

was a certain confidence that I had, that I was like, “I want

you to make fun of me because that makes me feel cool.”

LB: Ah, the old “Awkward and gawky, now I’m a goddess.”

EF: Exactly! There is, like, a fairy-tale aspect to that,

so that was always kind of in me. And I was already doing

films and stuff.

LB: Did you go to a school that had a lot of performers?

EF: I went to Campbell Hall, which is in the [San Fer-

nando] Valley. But I was home-schooled until the third

grade. And then my mom kind of realized, “OK, you need

to be around other kids.” [laughs] I went in fourth grade,

and I was there until senior year. I went to all of my proms.

LB: What did you wear to your proms?

EF: The first prom was in ninth grade. I wore a white

Ralph Lauren dress that we found at the mall. It was long

and flow y with a V-neck tank. For the second prom I

went to the Paper Bag Princess [in L.A.] and got a vintage

bias-cut pink John Galliano dress.

LB: You wore a bias-cut Galliano to your 10th-grade prom!

That is very advanced.

EF: Oh, yeah! I haven’t worn it since. I should wear it to a red

carpet. You know, I’ve always just been interested in fashion.

I love dressing up and playing characters. Growing up, my

sister, Dakota, and I would do scenes but just for each other.

There was a lot of Miranda Priestly from The Devil Wears

Prada and a lot of desk jobs.

LB: Oh, poetry. Was your desk job always in fashion?

EF: From what I remember it was. We would dress a

certain way and then put Coca-Cola in wineglasses. It

was a lot of Dakota screaming at me.

LB: Well, that’s what it’s like. [laughs] Who were some of

your style heroes as a kid?

EF: I loved Samantha from Bewitched. I would put a Brownie

uniform on for some reason and make tea. That was me

playing Samantha. I also loved Alexa Chung and her ’60s

tomboy style. My mom would take me to [the clothing store]

Opening Ceremony all the time. That was a big deal.

LB: I remember seeing you really wearing fashion when

you were just 16.

EF: Yes, that was for the first Maleficent. That was a very

important moment because it involved a huge press tour.

That’s when I learned how to express myself through clothes.

LB: Alongside that, when did you first compute that your

life was getting bigger, externally?

EF: I saw things happening to my sister, so it wasn’t

completely foreign to me. People would confuse me with

her all the time. It was a relief when people saw me as

myself. Super 8 [written and directed by J.J. Abrams, 2011]

was a big film, and we went to a couple of award shows,

and experiencing all of that was extremely new. I also love

seeing celebrities. I’m not jaded by that at all.

LB: Go on...

EF: I met Beyoncé at the Met Ball the first year that I was

there [in 2011, when she was 13]. I totally freaked out over

that. Leonardo DiCaprio, I totally freaked out over him too.

LB: You’re about to have a big movie come out. How do you

metabolize this shiny world?

EF: You just have to not think about it. I’ve never tried to

separate myself or wanted to separate myself. I also feel

like to be a good actress, you have to immerse yourself and

have experiences in the world.

LB: How do you manage your career, and what sort of

things are you looking for?

EF: It’s definitely instinctual, and, of course, there are other

factors, like, I really want to work with this director or this

actor. Like, with Leo? [laughs] Great! But I’m not a very calcu-

lating person. That’s why I’m bad at interviews. I’m obviously

not that old, but I am starting to realize that I can get a little

more involved [in developing projects]. If I have an idea

for a story or if I read a book that I really love, I can start to

cultivate that. I can take matters into my own hands. I’m

producing a television show in London [The Great] for Hulu

about Catherine the Great that I’m about to go do for six

months. And it’s with the co-writer of The Favourite, Tony

McNamara. We all decided we should make it into a show

instead of a movie, so we went around and pitched it. I’ve only

done that a couple of times. It’s very weird and unsettling.

I