- Hi, I'm Elle Fanning from Teen Spirit and you're watching
In Studio with the Hollywood Reporter.
(upbeat music)
- First of all, thank you for being here.
- Thank you.
- So you are starring in a new film called Teen Spirit
where you play sort of a shy teenager from a small town
who enters this singing competition.
Why was this character's story in particular something
that you wanted to dive into and that story you wanted
to tell?
- Yeah, I think I can relate.
First of all, I always, I've been looking for a musical
for a long time, so I feel this, checking that off
of the bucket list for me and be open to even be doing
more after this experience, but this particular story
I could relate to Violet's hunger and drive to achieve
her passion and her dream, and also in the business I'm in
and especially the music industry, there's a lot
of rejection and a lot of people, there's a lot of noes,
and the way that Violet dealt with that is something
that also I've had to learn to deal with.
Which is, you have to gather yourself back up
and find the passion again and find why you really want to do
this and continue forward and stay your authentic self.
'Cause I think Violet is a very authentic character.
She is truly herself and I think she's so uncompromising
and I think that's such a great message
for young people nowadays is you can achieve your dreams
without being someone different or molding yourself
into something you think the world wants to see
when actually they just want to see you be you.
But there's a real kind of anger and grit to Violet
that I loved kind of biting my teeth into.
- Yeah.
- I smile a ton, and I'm really giggly and people know
that about me, and Max was like, don't do that (laughs).
So he was like with Violet, we wanted to create
this character that isn't necessarily the most popular girl
in school or the most likable girl.
- Yeah.
- She's a true outsider and she has kind of this hard shell,
and I liked showing that type of girl.
- Yeah, that's very different from you, as a person,
like you said.
She's very internal and I don't know if I'd say brooding,
maybe a little brooding.
- Yeah, yeah, angsty teen, yeah.
- And then when she finally does smile, it's actually
such a relief watching.
- Rewarding. - Yeah.
You really feel like you earned
it whenever you're watching it.
Are you an American Idol fan?
How did you sort of, did you watch these shows?
Were you super into them?
- I was someone, yeah, 'cause I watched Kelly Clarkson,
I was about four or so but I watched those early seasons
and I watched it last night (laughs).
Funny enough, so yeah I love those shows.
And I think what, there's something that story line,
those movies, they're so cinematic, you know the artist,
whatever the artist may be, but that rise to stardom,
we've definitely seen a lot of those films lately.
I guess that's Star is Born is what I'm thinking,
but that's just a classic, everyone, they want to watch
that, you know?
Especially with American Idol, those are
real people, they're not playing characters.
- Right.
- You can't help but tear up when they go back
to their hometown.
- I know. - It gets you.
It really does.
- This is very different, though, 'cause people might see,
whenever you just label it as, it's not just a singing
competition movie, though.
- No, no.
- [Natalie] It's so, it's not at all.
- It's not really necessarily about the singing competition.
It takes you behind the scenes a bit.
It's not about ooh the inter workings
of a singing competition.
- I think it's also a lot about your character, Violet,
and the other character, Vlad.
- Yes.
- Can you tell me about, as someone raised by her father,
I felt like I was watching, it was
just this very important relationship for both of them.
Can you maybe talk a little bit about that relationship
and what do you think it meant to each of them?
Like what did they feel for each other?
- Yeah, that character in the relationship that they have,
reading the script that really, obviously it's
such a big part of the movie, but it really stood
out to me 'cause I think there's that mentor character.
It's a very authentic representation, a real representation,
of those mentors that we have in our life 'cause it is,
this movie is like a fairy tale in a way and he's
like the Fairy Godfather, and the father
that Violet didn't grow up having, and those mentors
sometimes, you've had, even in my life, it's like they're
there for that moment when you really need them
and they help you and they guide you along,
and then they sometimes they disappear,
which sometimes I watch a movie and, you know Vlad is real,
but I'm like, is he even real?
He's just kind of this magical figure but also he,
Violet brings out so much in him and just that he needed
to discover about himself, so they both help each other
which is the best mentor relationship.
They're both giving to each other.
- Yeah, and the movie is written and directed
by Max Minghella.
- Yes.
- Who most people probably know as an actor.
I mean, this is directorial debut, so he's most recently
in The Handmaid's Tale.
Was he a part of why you wanted to work on this?
Like what did you see in him whenever you were signing
on the project?
What about him did you admire as a writer and director,
and how did he affect you?
- Well it's so interesting 'cause I was not on the radar
for this part, or getting this part, at all.
They, Fred Burger, who I've worked with as a producer
before, but he decided, I think they decided to do
a press announcement without the film being cast
and it said this movie will be directed and was written
by Max Minghella, and it's about a girl who is
from a small town, goes on a singing competition,
and I was like, what is this?
I've been looking for something to sing in and my age area.
I'm like, this is crazy.
So I kind of was the one that pursued him
because people don't relate me to singing
and also they were looking at girls who could speak Polish
and were from Poland, so I was not on the radar,
so I had to prove myself a bit to him and be like I can do
this, and he did send me the script.
He's been working on this film for like 12 years,
so you can tell, when I can met him, this was like the story
that he wanted to tell, which is also so funny of him.
He wanted to tell this story about a teenage girl
with pop music, but he's a huge pop fan, like seriously,
so this is the movie that I want to do.
But when talking to him, we just had the same vision
of how we saw the movie.
We really just saw it in the same way, and I had seen
this documentary called Girl Model, which I actually think
this is part of the reason I got the part, because I saw
this documentary and then I read the script and I was
like, oh this reminds me a lot of Girl Model,
and he was like, that was a huge inspiration for this story.
So I'm like wow, great, I earned some points there.
But it's so in his blood, directing, and it's something
that he just is so comfortable on a film set and knows
exactly each shot.
And he's like an encyclopedia of all films.
He's seen so many films.
- So you speak in some Polish, you have an accent,
and you're singing in this movie.
- Yes.
- That's a lot for you to take on.
Do you sort of like those sort of challenges as an actress?
- I do. - Yeah.
- I feel like I'm always drawn to a challenge and I feel
like I also work the best when I'm scared and when I'm
the most under pressure.
If it's a high pressure situation, I feel like there's
this need for me to conquer it, or something.
- Yeah, you kind of can't mess up,
'cause you're also performing in front of a huge crowd
towards the end.
- Yeah.
- One of the last scenes, yeah.
- Towards the end, yeah.
Which is funny, I was joking earlier that there are
a bunch of background that we paid to watch me sing.
Maybe one day it'll be the other way around that they'll pay
to watch me, but it was, it was live performances
and getting ready for that was also different
'cause Marcus DeVries, who's the music supervisor,
I would work with him every day.
For three months I would go and sing through every song
and Violet's not a performer yet, so we don't film
the movie in chronological order, so you have to make
sure that you're in Violet's, even if you want to dance
out and be perfect, it's like no, she's not perfect
at this point.
So sometimes we would be oddly holding back at times
until we could fully go out.
You could go full on.
- 'Cause when it is chronologically, you want to see
that progression.
- Of course, yeah, exactly.
- For sure.
And how did you find her, 'cause I know you're a bit,
you're a singer.
- Yeah.
- Even though people might not, until now anyways, realize
that you are a singer, but how did you sort of find
her voice as this character and do you think,
is it different at all from your own voice?
How did you find that?
- It is a bit different from my voice 'cause I would put
my voice, I don't know, more in maybe, I don't know
if I would be a pop singer if I sang.
I don't know, everyone has different tones, but I feel
like I'm a little more folky, like country folky.
So this was different for sure, but it was also
as a big question was like does she sing
in an English accent or not?
'Cause she is English, but we decided, 'cause a lot
of people you do listen, you're like, oh they're English.
Sometimes they sing and they don't sound that way.
They just kind of take on a different tone, and we decided
not to have that 'cause Violet would be listening to,
trying to emulate all of these pop stars that she's hearing.
Max wanted me to lower my voice a bit, not in a singing,
not necessarily in the songs, but in her regular voice
when I was singing in the English accent, and also Polish is
a quite harsh language, so there's--
- It's kind of like guttural.
- It is. - Yeah.
- It does not sound anything like I'm really also used
to hearing.
It's not a language that I hear often, so it was nice,
Agnieszka who plays the mom in the film, she is
a Polish woman and a Polish actress, and so she helped
me with that, but I think being, when you're speaking
so not like yourself, it's like the signing, it does come
out different, ultimately.
Dua Lipa?
Dua Lipa was like an inspiration a bit for the character
'cause she has a similar story, not that she did a singing
competition, but she's from England and like a smaller town
and she has like some swag to her.
I think Violet has some swag.
- Is there anyone from the soundtrack or that you got
to collaborate with a little bit that you were most excited
to sort of have your name attached to?
- I feel like Wildflowers, even though it wasn't performed,
in its original song of the movie, but working
with Jack Antonoff was like, what is happening?
This is so cool 'cause every pop song that I know,
he's basically written every single ear worm that we hear
on the radio, and he's so talented.
He's seriously a genius and I got to sit in the studio
with him and see him work, and where he recorded
the Lorde album and the Taylor Swift album.
They're like, oh yeah, they were all here, and I was
like this is just mind blowing 'cause it's also very
out of my element, too, so going into that world
and having my name on a song that he wrote
with Carly Rae Jepsen, too, that was probably the coolest.
- [Natalie] Pretty cool. - Yeah.
- Well thank you so much for being here,
and everyone you can watch Teen Spirit in select theaters
on April 12 and nationwide April 19.
(swooshing)