By Mary Milliken


At just 16 years of age, Elle Fanning has spent nearly 90% of her life in the movie business, having made her debut as a two-year-old, younger version of her actress sibling Dakota Fanning.
But this is no jaded teen actor. She gets excited about playing a Disney princess opposite Angelina Jolie’s villain in Maleficent, the big-budget retelling of the fairytale classic Sleeping Beauty that prevailed at the North American box office in its debut last weekend.
With her long blond locks and angelic face, Fanning has starred in independent films like Somewhere as well as blockbusters like Super 8. She was 14 when she played Princess Aurora, who is cursed by Maleficent.
Fanning talked about playing a princess with more depth and finding the fun in her film roles. Excerpts …

Is this the biggest production you’ve been in?
This is definitely the biggest scale — set-wise, green screen and Angelina. It’s pretty huge. And playing a Disney princess, going on set and being there with so many crew members was very different. But it was exciting to have all the world around you.

What is your mind-set on such a big production, in a crucial role?
This one was very special to me, because Sleeping Beauty was my favorite princess growing up. I felt I looked like her the most. To be able to say I am a part of the Disney princess family ... that was huge for me.
In the animated (version), she has all those characteristics of a princess; she is very delicate and frolics around in the forest. In ours she does that, but she has more strength to her, there is a little bit more depth. In live action, you can really show those emotions. She feels sadness and betrayal.
What did you like about
this retelling of Sleeping Beauty?
All the questions you have in the original, this one answers those. You get to the back story, you get to see why she (Maleficent) became this way. I don’t think someone is just born evil. I think someone has to push them to be bad. That’s what I love about it.
She stands up for her home, she is protecting it from mankind as well ... She is a powerful lady and she is definitely in charge. There is a prince, but she is definitely the heroine. It’s definitely girl power.

Your director Robert Stromberg is a famous production designer. What is it like being an actor in a production where your director is a real artist?
I remember going into rehearsals for the first time and he showed me all these sketches. There was this room with all these mood boards. He was so excited about that, and the vibe of the film he wanted to get right. Even if I didn’t know how the characters would look exactly, he had it all set out in his brain. He had to imagine all that and also work with us as characters. He did such an amazing job.

How do you choose your roles these days?
You get scripts and read them. I feel like if you have to deliberate about it — ‘should I do this or not?’ — it is  probably ‘no.’ Because you are going to have to go do it for three months and play that person so you want to have a huge connection to it.
I always try to switch things up. From Maleficent, which is such a huge scale, I went and did Young Ones and Low Down which were real small independent films. I like having different experiences and obviously playing different characters because you don’t want to get bored. You want to always look different in films and speak differently. That’s the fun of it. It’s like dressing up.  — Reuters


Eva Longoria dismisses restaurant closure rumours

Actress Eva Longoria has dismissed reports that her restaurant in Las Vegas was shut down after failing a health inspection. The 39-year-old made a partnership agreement with the bosses at US restaurant chain Morton’s The Steakhouse to open SHe inside the Aria Resort and Casino in 2012.
The restaurant reportedly closed last weekend. In April, the restaurant received 21 demerits for health code violations from Southern Nevada Health District officials.
Longoria has slammed the rumours and took to Twitter: “Just to be clear, the steakhouse in Vegas did not close for health violations. We had an ‘A’ rating at time of closure.”
“People should read more carefully. SHe Las Vegas was originally concepted as a nightlife entertainment venue. Since the closing of the nightclub venue, we have been met with considerable resistance from our landlord to re-concept the nightlife theme which impacted our ability to deliver on our guests’ experience.”
The restaurant offered smaller-portion dishes for weight-conscious female customers. The actress still runs one of Los Angeles’ top restaurants Beso. — IANS

Damian Lewis found
Hollywood corrupt


Actor Damian Lewis first left the US because he found Hollywood to be “bloated and corrupting”.
The 43-year-old decided to relocate back to his native Britain over a decade ago because he was growing disillusioned with the film industry in Los Angeles, reports contactmusic.com. “I just didn’t feel I wanted to live in LA. There was still theatre that I wanted to do, there were a couple of big movies floating around,” he explained during a London TimesTalks event, organised by the International New York Times. “I ended up choosing a movie about aliens — which might be a decision I take back — an adaptation of a Stephen King novel called Dreamcatcher.
“I actually ran away from LA slightly put off by that experience, not the film itself, but there seemed to be something bloated and something slightly corrupting about (Hollywood). I couldn’t quite put my finger on it at the time,” he added. — IANS

Pattinson to play  
Indiana Jones?

Actor Robert Pattinson may end up playing Indiana Jones in the new series of adventure movie. In the past, Harrison Ford played Indiana Jones. The 28-year-old actor has topped a shortlist of actors being drawn up by Disney to replace 71-year-old Ford, reports showbizspy.com. “Disney is looking at its long-term options for the Indiana Jones franchise. They feel that the series has huge potential on many levels, starting with the films leading to other spin-offs like games which can generate more money than movies,” said a source.  “Rob is top of the initial list because he has showed his acting stripes away from Twilight. But the competition will be stiff,” added the source. – IANS