LOS ANGELES — Last week, Elle Fanning graduated from Campbell Hall School amid a sea of bright-blue gowns and matching mortarboard caps. "We all looked like little blueberries,” she says.
The very next night, Fanning walked the red carpet in a dazzling Dolce & Gabbana gown for the premiere of The Neon Demon (in theaters Friday), a stylized horror film in which her aspiring model contends with a business that's literally flesh-eating (by other jealous models). The opening scene depicts a modeling gig in which her neck is covered in faux blood.
Talk about stepping into a new, twisted world: The actress, the younger sister of Dakota Fanning, is best known for innocent roles such as Princess Aurora in Disney’s Maleficent.
“It’s like, whoa, this is the biggest transformation,” says Fanning, 18, busting into a goofy snort of a laugh at the trendy restaurant Tres. “This is a lot darker role for me. A lot darker.”
Chalk that up to auteur Danish filmmaker Nicolas Winding Refn, best known for 2011's neo-noir film Drive with Ryan Gosling. Fanning pounced when she heard he was making a film about the fashion industry.
“The king of masculinity, violence and blood is doing a fashion movie? That sounded like the coolest thing ever,” says Fanning, who on this day has clad her 5-foot-9 frame in a hot-pink Phillip Lim jumpsuit and towering Louboutin platform heels. “I wanted to be a part of it so bad.”
Neon Demon is a commentary on the obsession with beauty and societal narcissism. Fanning's 17-year-old character, Jesse, might come across as an innocent, but she has a diabolical streak.
“She’s Dorothy in Oz, but evil. She’s toxic,” says Fanning. “It’s fun to play evil. Especially this type. You think she’s totally naive and purity in this world. But she gains her power and loves herself more each time she looks in the mirror.”
That concept required some odd moments, such as a pivotal scene where Jesse kisses her own multimirrored reflection. Fanning ad-libbed the whole thing. “I had this really glossy lip gloss on. I looked up and could see myself in the mirrors. And it just happened," she says.
Another disturbing visual is a dream sequence in which a seedy hotel manager, played by Keanu Reeves, puts a knife down her throat. That required Reeves to stick a rubber prop knife in Fanning's mouth.
“We didn’t do too many takes. It was like, 'All right, we got this one,' ” says Fanning. “He was like ‘I’m sorry’ afterward, making sure I was OK.”
Bizarre and dark? Definitely. But Jena Malone, who plays a makeup artist, says she and Fanning cracked up even after the most intense moments. “We laughed all the time,” says Malone.
Fanning still laughs now, even when she’s reminded that the movie was booed at its first screening for critics at Cannes Film Festival in May. She points out that other audiences have embraced the work.
“Some people love it, some people hate it. But no one is ever going to say that it’s boring,” says Fanning. “Art isn't good or bad, but people are going to talk about it. And this will stay with you whether you liked it or you didn’t.”
