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Elle Fanning has been a steadily rising star in Hollywood in the 2020s, with a high-profile role in The Great (2020), Death Stranding 2 (2025), and her Oscar-nominated supporting performance in Sentimental Value. With her emerging as an acclaimed performer in her own right, it’s worth taking a look back at her illustrious career, which stretches back to the 2000s, when she started out as a child actress.
Elle Fanning Is Dakota Fanning’s Younger Sister Who Had Her Breakthrough In 2014
Elle Fanning started her career in the shadow of her older sister, Dakota Fanning, and several of her roles, such as 2001’s I Am Sam and 2002’s Taken miniseries, were playing younger versions of Dakota’s characters.
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She quickly gained prominence in her own right with roles in Studio Ghibli’s My Neighbor Totoro, CSI: NY, and Déjà Vu. In her late teens, she had her breakthrough role in 2014’s Disney release, Maleficent, where she played Princess Aurora.
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Maleficent, which starred Angelina Jolie as the titular villainess, is based on the classical fairy tale of Sleeping Beauty, which was originally adapted into an animated film in 1959. The fairytale sees Princess Aurora cursed by the villainous Maleficent, which results in her falling into an endless slumber until she’s rescued by the heroic Prince Phillip.
While Maleficent took a lot of liberties with the original fairy tale and animated film, it proved to be a commercial success thanks to its increased focus on the origins of Maleficent’s villainy, and Elle Fanning’s performance as Princess Aurora firmly established her as a rising star in her own right.
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Elle Fanning’s Streak Continues With Death Stranding 2 & Sentimental Value
In recent years, Elle Fanning has branched out into video games with a starring role in Hideo Kojima’s Death Stranding 2: On the Beach, where she played the female lead named Tomorrow, who had a mysterious connection with the game’s protagonist, Sam Porter Bridges (played by Norman Reedus).
Aside from that, Elle Fanning has continued to perform in both acclaimed independent films, such as The Neon Demon, The Beguiled, and Sentimental Value, for which she has been nominated for Best Supporting Actress.
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More About Sentimental Value
Sentimental Value is a Norwegian drama film that stars Stellan Skarsgård in the lead role of Gustav Borg, a troubled film director who’s deeply estranged from his family and trying to make a movie about his late mother, Karin, who was a member of Norway’s resistance against the Nazis. Elle Fanning portrays Rachel Kemp, a successful Hollywood actress whose reputation gets Gustav signed with Netflix, at the cost of his creative freedom.
Sentimental Value Trailer
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