Lost Big Franchise Role Due to Instagram Follower Count – The Hollywood Reporter

Elle Fanning is opening up about the pressure in Hollywood to join large franchise films.

The All the Bright Places star told Josh Horowitz on Thursday’s episode of the Happy Sad Confused podcast that she doesn’t feel the need to do projects for such brands as Marvel, DC Studios and Star Wars for success in the industry.

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 said she had previously auditioned for a role in a larger franchise, which she did not name, but didn’t get the part because of her social media presence.

“I didn’t get a part once for something big — and it might not have just been this reason, but this was all the feedback that I heard — because I didn’t have enough Instagram followers at the time,” said the Girl From Plainville actress, who currently has more than six million Instagram followers. “And so, that was a little like, OK, I mean that I firmly don’t believe in like ever not getting a part [because of that].”

As for navigating her career overall, Fanning, who played Aurora in Disney’s 2014 live-action Maleficent and its sequel, said it’s all about balance, especially between working on studio and indie projects.

“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,” she explained. “But then … if you have the backing of knowing that you have that thing, it does make you breathe better.”