From “dawgs” to “Waffle House,” Elle will leave you saying “well I’ll be” after this episode of Slang School for Vanity Fair.

Elle is on the cover of Vanity Fair October’s issue featuring a wonderful new photoshoot by Tierney Gearon.

Elle Fanning has been acting since she was two. She’s 22 now, and there are estimates that she’s logged some 60 roles in her career, which would mean she’s already headed for Streep territory. During a Zoom call, I ask if this is true, or even logistically possible.

She tilts her head. “Could that be?” she wonders. “You know what? I did write it down one time, and I think I still have it on my phone.” She whips out a pink phone emblazoned with a sticker of the cartoon juggernaut Strawberry Shortcake. Her fingers fly.

“Thirty-six,” she announces finally.

The former child star recently triumphed with what she refers to as her “first woman role” as Catherine the Great in The Great—Hulu’s raunchy, rollicking, and, at times, gleefully ahistorical account of the monarch’s bold rise to power—but, at home, her life is reeling decidedly backward through time. Like many of us, Fanning has retreated to a safe space during the coronavirus pandemic. She’s cocooning in place at her mom’s house in the San Fernando Valley with her 26-year-old sister and fellow actor, Dakota; their mother; their grandmother; and the family’s elderly pet schnoodle (mini schnauzer-poodle), Lewellen.

Elle was photographed while she was leaving Lancer x dermatology with her mom in Los Angeles the other day, September 18. Be sure to head over to the gallery for the latest candids.

DEADLINE – Elle Fanning has teamed up with Jessica Wapner, former science editor of Newsweek, for a documentary podcast series looking at the controversial diet pill and bodybuilding aid DNP.

The pair are working on One Click for Cadence13, the Entercom-backed podcast company. It is based on Wapner’s story for The Daily Beast – The Deadly Internet Diet Drug That Cooks People Alive that was published by in January 2020 and was commissioned by Vespucci Group, the film, TV, podcast & multimedia incubator that produces fact-based stories.

The Great star and exec producer Fanning will narrate the series, based on Wapner’s writing.

DNP is a chemical that was originally used in WWI-era artillery shells that has more recently been sold on the Internet as a diet pill and bodybuilding aid—with fatal results. Fanning and Wapner explore the issues of body image and mental health, and unravel these chain of events.

One Click is designed as a franchise with the story of DNP set as season one. The franchise will explore how a single click on the internet can change a life forever.

The first season of One Click will launch in early 2021.

One Click will be executive produced by Chris Corcoran, Chief Content Officer, Cadence13. It will be directed and produced by Cadence13 and Vespucci Group. Fanning, Wapner, and Brittany Kahan Ward will also produce.

“I am thrilled to be partnering with Cadence 13, Jessica Wapner and Vespucci Group on a podcast that I hope will start an important conversation amongst my peers,” said Fanning. “Our lives are consumed by social media and the internet, and we need to be conscious of the negativity it can breed and the ways in which it is being misused that are so harmful. I even find myself comparing my thighs to other people’s thighs on Instagram. Through Jessica’s investigation into DNP, a drug I had never heard of before, we hope to uncover and expose those preying on the vulnerable. This isn’t a chemistry story—it’s the story of 21-year-olds who burned alive from the inside trying to reach an intangible goal of what society’s beauty standards are today.”

Wapner added, “Moving this story from print to podcast will make for a far-reaching and in-depth examination of the many dire issues surrounding body image. Elle’s intelligence, openness and experience make her an ideal co-host. Vespucci Group’s collaborative spirit, dedication to journalism and storytelling skills make them the ideal producers, along with Cadence13.”

“We’re proud to be aligning with Elle and Jessica, two enormous talents who are clearly passionate about exploring the dangers of body image pressures and the risks people are willing to take, through the lens of this dark and terrifying story,” said Chris Corcoran, Chief Content Officer, Cadence13.

Fanning is represented by Echo Lake Entertainment, United Talent Agency, and Hansen Jacobson. Vespucci Group is represented by WME.

Elle was seen while she was running errands in Los Angeles the other day, September 9. You can find the newest candids in the gallery.

Elle Fanning’s Bright Future

The actor’s darkly comic portrayal of a young Catherine the Great could be the role that defines her. With a second season in the works and a burgeoning career as a producer, things are heating up for fashion’s favorite polymath

Since she started working in the movie business a whopping 20 years ago, Elle Fanning, who turned 22 earlier this year, has collaborated with some of Hollywood’s most exciting directors. Among them: David Fincher for 2008’s The Curious Case of Benjamin Button; Sofia Coppola for 2010’s Somewhere and 2017’s The Beguiled; J.J. Abrams for 2011’s Super 8; Mike Mills for 2016’s 20th Century Women; and Alejandro González Iñárritu for 2006’s Babel.

But Fanning’s first major role in television may wind up being her career-defining moment. In The Great, she stars as Catherine the Great, Russia’s longest-ruling female leader, opposite Nicholas Hoult as the dastardly Peter III. Alongside Normal People, the series became one of Hulu’s biggest streaming successes during the pandemic, and the platform says it will commission a second season.

As viewers gleefully discovered, this is not your average, run-of-the-mill Catherine the Great — nor anything at all like the one portrayed last year by Helen Mirren in HBO’s limited series. No, this is Tony McNamara’s Catherine the Great. You might know McNamara because he co-wrote 2018’s The Favourite, which won Olivia Colman an Oscar. The Great is very much in the mold of that film, meaning it’s hilarious and absurd, offering a side of Fanning we haven’t gotten to see much during the last two decades.

Few TV shows of 2020 have been as thrilling, funny, and heartbreaking as The Great. The Hulu series is a tonal tight-rope walk as it chronicles (and fictionalizes) the early days of Catherine the Great’s marriage to Peter III of Russia, with Elle Fanning and Nicholas Hoult playing off of one another like they’re having a fierce tennis match. It’s jubilant and harrowing and romantic and hilarious at equal turns, and the fact that it works so well is a testament to the performances and, of course, the writing.

Before showrunner Tony McNamara earned an Oscar nomination for co-writing the 2018 film The Favourite, he wrote a play based on the life of Catherine the Great. He previously attempted to adapt the play into a feature film, before eventually deciding on a TV series format. Enter Hulu, Fanning, and Hoult, and you have one of the best TV shows of 2020.

The Great is Emmy-nominated for Outstanding Writing for a Comedy Series for McNamara’s work on the pilot (and Matt Shakman for Best Director on the same episode), and while I’m still mad as heck that Hoult and Fanning weren’t recognized for their brilliant performances (and that the show itself wasn’t nominated for Best Comedy), I was more than happy to speak with McNamara by phone recently about his work on the series.

During our interview, he talked about the key casting of Fanning and Hoult, the purposeful pace of the show, and why he didn’t want to write all the episodes before they started filming. McNamara also shed some light on some specific plot points from the show’s first season, including why Marial betrayed Catherine and whether Leo’s death was always part of the plan. And with the show renewed for a second season by Hulu, he offered a tease of where The Great Season 2 might be going.

Check out the full interview below.

On the anniversary of Miley Cyrus’s infamous Wrecking ball, Elle Fanning performs the song in Lyrical Improv fashion.

Elle was photographed while she was out and about in Los Angeles with her mom a few days ago, August 20. Head over to the gallery for the latest candids