Emmy nominee lost out on 'big' role for unexpected reason

wonderwall.com:

Elle Fanning revealed that she once lost out on a role because her Instagram presence wasn't large enough. The Emmy-nominated actress didn't say what film gave her the stiff arm, but she hinted that it was a major film franchise."I didn't have enough Instagram followers at the time," she said on the "Happy Sad Confused" podcast.

Although she notes that her sparse-at-the-time Instagram following might not have just been this actual reason producers passed on her, it was "all the feedback" she heard. "So, that was a little like, okay?" she said. "I mean that I firmly don't believe in like ever not getting a part [for that reason].

It was for a bigger thing, a franchise thing."The star of "The Great" now has 6.2 million Instagram followers.Despite the shunning, Elle doesn't feel pressure to become part of a major franchise, but she wouldn't say "no" if the right role was offered."It does something for people, you know, but you also don't know if [major franchises] gonna work sometimes, which is also scary," she said.While she did take the role of Aurora in "Maleficent," Elle typically stars in smaller productions and TV series. "If you want to do your indie work, especially in producing, now I realize, well, there are scripts that I want to take a chance on and produce and they're small, but then you know you have to know, maybe it's about the experience," Elle said.

She then acknowledged, "If you want to do your indie work, especially in producing now, if you have the backing of knowing that you have that thing [a big franchise], it does make you breathe better."A former Olympian is facing up to 20 years in federal prison for intentionally crashing his small airplane in an effort to gain YouTube views and a sponsorship.