Charli xcx first declared a “Joachim Trier summer” at Coachella, and now Elle Fanning — one of the stars of his new film “Sentimental Value” — is doubling down.
On Thursday, Fanning rocked a white T-shirt bearing the phrase to the Cannes press conference for the film, which earned the longest standing ovation of the competition so far on Wednesday night with a rapturous 15 minutes. The reception has the festival buzzing that the film could be the frontrunner for this year’s Palme d’Or.
When asked about Fanning’s shirt during the press conference, Trier said: “I was stoked that you made that. Charli xcx gave a little hello to us and we are super grateful. I love her music, she’s awesome. I know Elle’s a fan too. The problem is, I’ve been working so much for the last three years I don’t even know what a Joachim Trier summer is anymore. But I’d like to have one.”
The 27-year-old Fanning, who grew up in the spotlight as a child star alongside her sister Dakota, also spoke about how her career has evolved over the years after a journalist noted that this may be her most mature role yet. She plays Rachel Kemp, a Hollywood starlet who is offered a role in a very personal film from director Gustav Borg (Stellan Skarsgard) that he first offered to his daughter Nora (Renate Reinsve). Eventually, Rachel backs out of the project after getting mixed up in their family drama.
“As I’ve gotten older now, yes, the world opens up and you are offered more roles. And I got very lucky with this one,” she said. “I’ve never been in the same position as Rachel because I haven’t gotten so far down the road with a project before. But I’ve definitely read a script [where] I was offered one character in the script and once I read it I thought, ‘Gosh I’m just not right for her. Maybe this other character’s better.’ And I’ve definitely not done things because I didn’t think that I was quite right for it or not ready yet for that. I’m very instinctual and go by the gut.”
She added: “I myself have definitely grown in my autonomy and speaking up through the years in this business.”
Of working with Trier, Fanning said she was a huge fan of his film “The Worst Person in the World” and he was on her “bucket list” of directors she wanted to work with.
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“Once I read the script I was completely floored,” she said. “You do not come by scripts like that that are so moving or nuanced. I read it so quickly. Everyone can always tell, if I read something really fast that means I’m really excited.”
Fanning remembered how she met up with Trier in Oslo before shooting the upcoming “Predator: Badlands” film in New Zealand, which she called “a big commercial movie.”
“We had so many in-depth conversations about who we wanted Rachel to be,” she continued. “This whole experience, the environment he creates is such a safe space to just be open and he is looking at you and seeing you and getting things out of you that you didn’t even know were inside of yourself.”
Trier also spoke about the emotion that is portrayed in the film, saying that he was initially “a little bit shy” to tackle it because he and co-writer Eskil Vogt come from a “punk background.”
“We were counter-culture and we didn’t want to make sobby movies,” he said. “But we realized through the films we’ve made that we’ve grown older and the world is a tough place, and maybe we need to be vulnerable and show characters that are vulnerable. So we kind of came to the conclusion that tenderness is the new punk. For me, it is. It’s what I need right now — I need to believe that we can see the other, that there is a sense of reconciliation, that polarization and machismo isn’t the only way forward.”
From Variety US