Elle Fanning Reveals She Lost a Role for Not Having Enough Instagram Followers

The Great star Elle Fanning has been working with directors like David Fincher, Tony Scott and Sofia Coppola since she was a child, but even though she’s been the star of some prestigious, critically acclaimed films, she revealed that she’s lost out on certain roles for some wild reasons.

In an interview with Josh Horowitz on his “Happy Sad Confused” podcast, Fanning revealed that she missed one particularly big opportunity (“I’m not gonna say what it was,” she diplomatically noted) because a studio didn’t think she had enough social media followers.

“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,” Fanning explained, adding that of all the reasons an actor is passed over for a role, she’s not okay with that one.

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

Though she didn’t say what project she was passed over for, she hinted, “It was for a bigger thing, like a franchise-y thing,” saying that she wouldn’t say no to appearing in a large comic-book style franchise if the opportunity did arise.

Fanning did name names when discussing other projects she wishes she could have been a part of, saying that she would have loved to be involved in Dune, but her schedule for The Great excluded her from even auditioning. She also regrets that the Patty Hearst movie she was attached to in 2017, which would have been directed by James Mangold, was scrapped.

Fanning currently has over 6 million Instagram followers, by the way, and we’ll all be bingeing season three of The Great on Hulu this weekend.