Mary Elle Fanning (born April 9, 1998 in Conyers, Georgia) is an American actor from Georgia.
She is the younger sister of Dakota Fanning, but has gained recognition as a star in her own right.
Roles on this wiki:
- i am sam (2001) as the two-year-old Lucy
- Taken (2002) as the three-year-old Allie Keys
- Daddy Day Care (2003) as Jamie
- Because of Winn-Dixie (2005) as Sweetie Pie Thomas
- My Neighbor Totoro (2006) as Mei (voice, Disney English dub)
- Déjà Vu (2006) (2006) as Abbey — Coincidentally, her sister had previously worked with Denzel Washington in Man on Fire.
- Babel (2006) as Debbie Jones
- I Want Someone to Eat Cheese With (2006) as Penelope
- The Curious Case of Benjamin Button (2008) as Daisy (age 7)
- Astro Boy (2009) as Grace (voice)
- The Nutcracker in 3D (2010) as Mary
- Somewhere (2010) as Cleo
- Super 8 (2011) as Alice — Considered to be her breakout role.
- Twixt (2011) as V
- We Bought a Zoo (2011) as Lily
- Maleficent (2014) as Princess Aurora — Considered to be her Star-Making Role.
- Maleficent: Mistress of Evil (2019)
- The Boxtrolls (2014) as Winnie (voice)
- 3 Generations (2015) as Ray
- Trumbo (2015) as Nikola Trumbo
- The Neon Demon (2016) as Jesse
- Ballerina (2016) as Félicie Milliner (voice)
- 20th Century Women (2016) as Julie
- Live by Night (2016) as Loretta Figgis
- How to Talk to Girls at Parties (2017) as Zan
- I Think We're Alone Now (2018)
- A Rainy Day in New York (2019) as Ashleigh Enright
- The Great (2020) as Catherine the Great
- The Girl From Plainville (2022) as Michelle Carter
Tropes about Elle Fanning:
- Big Little Sister: Elle towers over her older sister
◊, who only comes up to Elle's nose. - Break the Cutie: A few examples from her roles:
- In Twixt, she plays an orphan girl who is murdered (and possibly also molested) by a corrupt pastor.
- In Ginger and Rosa, her character is a young girl growing up in Cold War-era London, who grows increasingly fearful of an impending nuclear apocalypse.
- In Maleficent, she takes on the role of Aurora, who starts out as an incarnation of Incorruptible Pure Pureness, but has an emotional breakdown when she discovers that not only is she cursed, but the woman she saw as her "fairy godmother" was the reason she was cursed in the first place.
- In The Neon Demon she is eventually murdered and eaten.
- In Live By Night she goes to California to be an actor but becomes an addict and implied porn-star. When she returns to Ybor City, she becomes a preacher. It's only an act, she doesn't believe in God. She winds up killing herself after confessing her act to Joe.
- In an episode of Law & Order: SVU, she plays a twice-discarded foster child who is Driven to Suicide.
- The Cast Show Off: In Teen Spirit, she plays Violet, a girl who enters a televised talent show in the vein of America's Got Talent. Elle did all of her own singing, live on set and not in post production. She first showed off her singing chops in public at the 2016 Montreux Jazz Festival, where she and Woodkid sang a duet of "Never Let Me Down", and she wowed the audience with her surprisingly mature voice.
- Chronically Killed Actor: She has an impressive death count considering her age. She’s died in Live By Night, Galveston, The Neon Demon and Twixt so far.
- Creepy Child: As Virginia in Twixt. She even manages to pull off a disturbing Slasher Smile near the end.
- Fake Brit: In Ginger And Rosa, Maleficent and in the title role in Mary Shelley. She manages to pull the accent off quite well.
- Fiery Redhead: As Winnie in The Boxtrolls. Subverted with her character in Ginger and Rosa, who comes off more as an Emo Teen.
- Growing Up Sucks: Averted. She revealed in some interviews that her growth spurt during the filming of Somewhere was so painful to her, that she often passed out. In addition, she had even become able to wear Dakota's old outfits for a while (except for shoes since Elle's feet had grown bigger than Dakota's). However, Elle did not complained about it or harbored any hard feelings. She did not shy away from revealing she had gained two shoe sizes in the process, either. She even laughed when she recalled the time of Somewhere's filming, when her growing feet had outgrown her sandals by her last scene.
- Hair of Gold, Heart of Gold: Fellow actor Chloë Grace Moretz called her an "ethereal forest elf."
- I Got Bigger: It's the reason why she is now taller than her older sister. At age 11, she had an intense growth spurt, where she grew seven inches in a year and a half. Furthermore, during the shooting of Somewhere, right at the start of her said growth spurt, her feet had grown two sizes bigger in just six weeks.
- Middle Name Basis: Like her sister, she goes exclusively by her middle name.
- Mistaken Identity: She used to get mistaken for her big sister. Now that she's gotten older and made more of a name for herself as an actor, it's lessened.
- Punny Name: This Vogue short turns her name into creative tongue-twisters.
- Statuesque Stunner: Though only 5'9", her lithe build tends to make her look taller. And in the company of her sister, the nearly half foot height difference make Elle look much taller.
- Teens Are Short: A real-life aversion. Her height soared all the way to 5'6 at around twelve after a huge growth spurt, becoming taller than her big sister as a result. She continued to grow for a few years until she reached her full height of 5'9.
- Time-Shifted Actor:
- In i am sam and Taken, she plays the younger versions of her sister's characters.
- In The Curious Case of Benjamin Button where she plays the younger version of Cate Blanchett.
- Vocal Dissonance: Her voice has been noted as unusually deep for her age and appearance.
- When She Smiles: She has a very bright, wide smile that plays nicely into her characters' innocent nature.
- Younger Than They Look: Due to her height and deep voice, she has been able to play characters a few years older than her age.
