Unlike the typical 21-year-old, Elle Fanning has already had herself a long and successful acting career in movies. She has over 60 acting credits to her name and she’s barely just allowed to be let into bars. Famous for her roles in Babel, Super 8 and as Aurora in Maleficent. But, what could she have in common with a teenager living in Indiana from in Netflix’s All The Bright Places?
When CinemaBlend sat down with the actress during a press day in Los Angeles, she talked about the commonalities she found between herself and Violet Markey. Check out her response below:
Turns out, a lot. As Elle Fanning told us, she felt she could relate to the All The Bright Places character on an emotional level. Violet Markey is dealing with the loss of her older sister and she closes what she’s feeling off from everyone. Fanning spoke to understanding what it’s like to not wanting to deal with certain feelings and having them come out and explode or “vomit” in other ways later.
All The Bright Places is based on a 2015 novel of the same title written by Jennifer Niven. The bestseller follows Elle Fanning’s character, who is going through an emotional roadblock after being in the same car as her sister when she died in a car accident. Justice Smith’s character of Theodore Finch then comes along to help her see the brightness in the world through their Geography class project.
Justice Smith has been making a name for himself in the past few years as Tim Goodman in 2019’s Detective Pikachu and Franklin Webb in Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom. He’s also expected to return to the third installment called Dominion that just kicked off filming ahead of its 2021 release.
All The Bright Places is a story that deals with the tough topic of mental illness. In this recent interview with CinemaBlend's Jeff McCobb, Elle Fanning is certainly being open about her own feelings and how she might have dealt with them before. The film directed by Brett Haley (who previously made Sundance hit, Hearts Beat Loud) may certainly be a good conversation starter about depression and suicide.
Starting to combat the stigmas surrounding mental illness starts with being honest with how we are feeling and the actress does not shy away from finding comparisons of her own to Violet Markey’s journey in the movie and the book it’s based on.
Reviews are still pouring in for All The Bright Places but it has debuted with a 75% fresh score on Rotten Tomatoes. I gave the movie a 4 out of 5 in my review, finding the way it handles these subjects to be refreshing in a genre that often tends to sensationalize the mixing of teen romance with depression.
All The Bright Places is streaming on Netflix now.
