Elle Fanning says her Instagram following count kept her from a major franchise role

Elle Fanning has revealed that her Instagram following count played a crucial role in one of her auditions.

The actress revealed that she wasn’t considered for a role in a big franchise movie because her Instagram following count wasn’t up to the studio’s standards.

“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 told Josh Horowitz on his ‘Happy Sad Confused’ podcast. Fanning’s following count is currently set at 6.2 million.

“That’s something I firmly don’t believe in, for not getting a part,” she added.

Elle Fanning doesn’t feel the pressure to join big franchises

Fanning, 25, also spoke about whether she felt pressure to join big franchises, such as Marvel, DC Studios, or Star Wars, in order to succeed in the movie industry.

“I don’t feel that way. I don’t,” she said. “It does something for people, you know, but you also don’t know if they’re gonna work sometimes, which is also scary.”

Fanning began her acting career at the age of three, alongside her older sister, Dakota with the two appearing in many movies together.

She appeared in ‘Daddy Day Care’ when she was just four, and later voiced Mei in the English dub of ‘My Neighbor Totoro’. In 2014 Fanning starred in her breakout role as Princess Aurora in ‘Maleficent’, later reprising the role in the sequel released in 2019.

Now Fanning stars as Catherine the Great in the Hulu series ‘The Great’ opposite Nicholas Hoult, who’s recently spoken about the bigger roles that he’s lost out on, including Bruce Wayne/Batman which ended up going to Robert Pattinson.

“I would never say no to those things, but I would have to have a meeting and really talk to see what it is,” she explained.

“I didn’t have to go through what Nick did…they made him try the [Batman] suit on,” she said jokingly.

“But I do think you need a balance. If you want to do your indie work, especially in producing now I realize, well, there are scripts that I want to take a chance on and produce and they’re small, but then you know, you have to know, maybe it’s about the experience [of the backing of a big franchise],” she explained.

Season 3 of ‘The Great’ premieres on Huly on Friday, May 12.