In her film (TeenSpirit), the actress plays a teenager who triumphs in a young talent contest.
Elle Fanning has been acting for almost two decades-she started when she was two years old-; and she has worked for directors such as Alejandro González Iñárritu -in ‘Babel’ (2006)-, J.J. Abrams -in ‘Super 8’ (2011)- and Sofia Coppola -in ‘Somewhere’ (2010) and ‘The Seduction’ (2017)-, but starring in ‘Achieving your dream’ (TeenSpirit) made him feel beginner’s anxiety. “Shooting all those scenes singing in front of an audience made me feel very vulnerable, almost N-,” she recalls. “Music has always enchanted me, and as a child, I would walk around the house imitating Gwen Stefani and The Pussycat Dolls, but this is arguably the first time I’ve ever sung out of the shower.”
Just arrived on the billboard, ‘Reaching your dream’ is the story of an introverted teenager who lives on the remote Isle of Wight (England) and who has one dream: to become a pop star; Participating in a talent show singing songs like Robyn’s ‘Dancing On My Own’ or Sigrid’s ‘Don’t kill my vibe’ will help her achieve it. “The songs that I perform in the film are true anthems, everyone knows and loves them. I guess that also contributed to my feeling so pressured during the shoot. I didn’t want to destroy melodies that make so many people happy.”
In reality, what the film offers is nothing more than another variation of a narrative archetype that Hollywood has been handling all its life -just a few months ago, without going any further, Lady Gaga won an Oscar thanks to the fourth version of ‘A Girl Is Born’. Estrella- and that despite this continues to fascinate the spectators. “We all like to fantasize that something like this, achieving overnight success, could happen to us, too,” Fanning says. “That’s why pageants like ‘La Voz’ are so famous. I was hooked on some of them for years; I even called to vote for my favorite singers.”
In real life, however, competitions between aspiring artists are often stories of rejection and failure, which Fanning claims to know all too well. “I started very young and participated in many castings, and I can say that they are an often traumatic exercise. You receive a lot of negatives and reactions that damage your self-esteem, and make you wonder if maybe you should dedicate yourself to something else. Although, on the other hand, he adds, that insecurity can be very inspiring, and perhaps that is why he does not rule out the possibility of trying to start a career as a singer.
