Elle Fanning is a Hollywood icon given all the *chef’s kiss* films she’s done, but the actor recently got candid about a moment in which she was actually turned down for a role because of *checks notes* her social media follower count? Actual footage of me looking at my measly Instagram follower count compared to hers, which sits at a whopping 6.2 million:
Elle opened up about the moment during a convo with Josh Horowitz on Thursday’s episode of the Happy Sad Confused podcast, revealing she doesn’t feel the need to do projects for franchises (think: Marvel, DC Studios, and Star Wars) to stay “relevant” in the industry.
“I don’t feel that [pressure]. I don’t,” Elle said, while also acknowledging that joining franchises like these “does something” for other actors’ careers. “It does something for people, you know, but you also don’t know if they’re going to work sometimes, which is scary.”
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Afterwards, the Maleficent actor admitted there was actually one big franchise movie that she auditioned for, to no avail…because of Instagram. “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,” she said before adding, “And so, that was a little like, okay. I mean that I firmly don’t believe in like ever not getting a part [for that]. It was for a bigger thing, a franchise thing.”
Interestingly enough, Elle has previously spoken out about social media, admitting she once avoided it altogether. “My parents never let me have a Facebook account. I had a private Instagram, but I was always a little intimidated by it,” she explained to CMagazine (via Teen Vogue) of her then-social media presence back in 2016. “I have never had a Twitter account. People just argue on Twitter and I want to stay away. I guess I like Instagram because I am a visual person,” she said. As someone who constantly takes inspo from Elle’s feed, I thank her for her service 🫡.
Assistant news editor
Gretty Garcia is the assistant news editor at Cosmopolitan, where she covers all things news, entertainment, and pop culture. Before joining Cosmo, Gretty was a social strategist for Mrs. Dow Jones and a features and special projects editor at Editorialist. She holds an MS from the Columbia Journalism School and studied art history at Harvard College.