Elle Fanning Joined OnlyFans To Research Margo s Got Money Troubles Role

How are you? I'm good. I felt like I just saw you. I was like, oh, I'm so excited she's back. You're just crushing it. You have so many projects going on. Congratulations. Thank you so much. Congratulations on the Oscar nomination. How did you feel? Thank you. Oh, my gosh. That was a surreal morning, to say the least. So I had gone out pretty late with my sister before, so we kind of had a night out. So we crashed at my mom's house, and we probably went to sleep at like 3 a.m., like L.A. time. And then the nominations, you know, they're announced at like 5 a.m. L.A. time, so I was dead asleep. Who is awake watching that? I know. I was dead asleep. And then my phone, you know, that kind of subconscious feeling, you're like, I think something's happening on the phone. It's like lighting up, and I look, and I have all these texts and these calls, and I was like a walking zombie. I was like, is this real life? Is this real life? I couldn't believe it. I start screaming. My mom comes out. My grandmother comes out. What a cool thing that you happen to be at her house. That's so special. Yeah, with family. Oh, yes. And that's the director of Sentimental Value. Oh, you're a pretty crier. Yes. You're so beautiful when you cry. What? I was still in my nightgown in that. And, well, you look beautiful. It's such a beautiful thing. So what was the nightlight for you? You've been before, but this was the first time nominated, right, that you were going? That's right. Yes. I had been only the year prior. I got to present that year, so that was like my first time. But it's definitely a different experience going being nominated, the nerves. And it almost felt, I mean, I've never been married, but I felt like the getting ready process felt like a wedding day, you know, the nerves. And my mom actually had these special robes made that said Oscars, yeah, Oscars, and the date. And so we just, you know, popped champagne and made a meal of it. And she came as my date. And my boyfriend came with me. And, yeah, we just, I was like, hey, now we have to stay out all night. I want to go to every party and, like, see what it's like. Oh, that's so, I love that for you. I love that you're with family. Like, you said when you found that out, too. Yeah. That's been down for the whole ride. Yes. Because y'all, man, you've been doing it for so long. I know. Also, I felt like you were kind of my good luck charm in a way for the nomination because you were my last stop on the press tour last year. So thank you. Yeah. I was like, I went on your show, and then it was very close that the, like, announcements came out. And I'm like, it was because of Kelly. I think so, too. Yeah. No, no. So, wait. Tell us about Margo's Got Money Troubles. This is a, this is a, it's an episodic thing. So it's like, there's a lot where you get a little bit of info every time, obviously. But like, there's a lot more than money troubles going on. There is. There's a lot of characters. It is based on a book by Rufy Thorpe that's called Margo's Got Money Troubles. And it follows Margo, who's a college student. She's an aspiring writer. We find her, she's going to Fullerton College. And then, an unexpected surprise, she finds out she's pregnant with her English professor's child. Hey! Yeah! Yes. So that's the first curveball that hits her. Many, many more do. More than academia. Okay, cool. Yes. Okay. And we kind of follow her, her journey of like, new motherhood, experiencing that. And also, she doesn't have money. She's broke. And she discovers OnlyFans and joins OnlyFans. So funny. Yeah. And then Michelle Pfeiffer is my mom, who's an incredible character. Which you already knew her, so that's cool to have a shorthand. Like working with, you know, being in a, it's just in an environment where sometimes you might walk in and you don't know the people that you're working with. Totally. And that's gonna make you feel better, right? It does. And David E. Kelly is a showrunner, writer, and he's married to Michelle. I knew this. Yes. And I think it's their first time working together, actually. What? In this, yeah. I think she did a movie. She said she had like one scene in something. But other than that, they never. What if they secretly don't like each other's projects? I know. What are they? She waited. She waited for this moment. She loved the character. That's amazing. Yeah. But I've known Michelle technically since I was two, because in I Am Sam, when I did, played Dakota Young, I was running around on set when Dakota was filming, so she knew me then. And then we did. That's not normal. No, not normal. No. But I am lucky that it felt like a very family experience, because I had worked, I knew a lot of the people that were in the show. Yeah. And Nicole Kidman, I've worked with before, and she's in the show. She's a producer as well. The cast is pretty major. We got some great people. Oh, man. Nick Offerman. You got so many great people. Yeah. It's a loaded cast for sure. You read the novel, right, before? I did. Yeah. Yes. I read the novel before, and then I actually, after I knew I was going to do the project, they asked if I would do the audio book. I heard. Yeah. Which I love this. Getting actors to do it too, because sometimes you- I want to do that, because there's a long drive or something, and I'm in Montana, and I'm like, well, I want to listen. But sometimes the people reading it suck. Yeah. And I'm like, and you're ruining the story for me. I tried not to suck. It's like, no, you're great. That's what I'm saying. I feel like actors should be doing it, because you know what you're doing. I know. I'd never done it before where I knew I was going to play this character and then got to read the book. I felt like in real time, I was finding her voice and rhythm and sense of humor, and so it was quite helpful. Now I'm like, when I do an adaptation of something, I'm like, I want to read the audio book for it. Yes. I wish actors would do it more too, because not all authors, but most can't. They shouldn't read their own book. They should just write. We're all good at different things. No, but what did you love about playing Margot? Oh my gosh. It's a wild character. She is wild. I think her optimism, and she kind of always makes the most difficult choice in life for herself, but she never is a victim. She always somehow manages to find a way and pop back up and has this real resilience and bravery about her and positivity when life has dealt her some difficult hands. I felt like through playing her, I kind of found some boldness and some courage through that. I love the relationship between the mother and daughter with Michelle in it. I did too, and the hard conversations of her choices in life and her being like, please don't do ... There's a lot of conversations. Exactly, because it's a cycle. You want better for your children than what you had, and so I think Michelle's character is dealing with that, and Margot is, because she's also trying to provide for her son to give him a better life than she did. There's a lot of generations. That was a look at her new series, Margot's Got Money Troubles. It's out now on Apple TV. I love that scene, and that, baby. Oh my goodness. How did it feel playing a mom? I'm not a mom, but that baby, that was River. We had two babies that we would use, River and Graham, and they would kind of alternate, and I got so close to them. I loved them. It also added so much authenticity to the scenes, because they would either be crying or they'd make a sound, and we'd just play with it, and it would be kind of spontaneous. We did have dolls lying around of fake babies in case we needed to use, but they were so creepy. They creep me out. I know. My daughter, I'm so glad she got out of that phase. I was like, I'm tired of having this in my house. It's so creepy. You walk in, and you're like, oh, there's this. It's just laying on the floor looking at you, and I'm just, yeah. Totally. So we tried to use the real babies as much as possible. Yeah, I mean, I tried to, I guess, I think with Margot, everything's just coming from this abundance of love, and so I tried to imagine how much you would do anything for your child, and there was ... There's a scene that's very relatable. We were talking about it in the break, but literally, I was like, because I was like, not a mom, but it is funny. When you leave the hospital for the first time, you're like, oh my God, they let me take it home? I don't know what I'm doing. There's a very relatable scene. Totally, yeah. David wrote this, and Margot's like, I don't have to have passed a test. There's no manual for this. This is crazy. They're just letting me take this little life home with me. So Margot, she's figuring it out, of course, and I was surrounded by a lot of moms on set, and so they would give me tips, and Bodie has colic in the show, and so they were like, how that was to deal with. Hell, yeah. The emotions, breastfeeding. I wore prosthetic breasts for those moments. That really pumped and did, that's weird. Yes. I mean, obviously, the real babies, they didn't do that. For sure. That would be crazy, but for certain scenes, we had to show squirting milk, so there was a tube. For the OnlyFans. Yeah, for the OnlyFans. People are so messed up in the world. It is so messed up. Yes. She's like, well, I think people would pay to see this. Sure would. But yeah, we had this tube that squirts, and there was a pooper shooter situation, and Margot gets hit in the face by poo. For sure. Is it true that you and the writers, everybody kind of signed up for the OnlyFans thing to kind of do research? Yes. What kind of weirdos did you encounter? Because there's some crazy stuff on there. I mean, it's a spectrum on there. I think coming into it, I think I had one view of what OnlyFans was, and then through the research, I mean, I didn't create an account myself, but there was this kind of joint account with a username that we could go in and log in, and you do have to pay to see content and stuff, and so production kind of handled all that. So there was some girls that I would watch, and things that Rufy, the author, had watched for research for the book, but it's a vast spectrum. There's people who lick doorknobs or step in butter. I just love that there are so many people. It's still relatively new in the world. You don't know where to place it exactly. I hope that people in the world now use it. They're like, I'm just researching a role. You know what I'm saying? I hope they use it. They're like, I didn't really want to be on it. I was just doing research. It's crazy stuff. The new show also has a lot of cosplay, right? It does, yes. One character, Susie, who's played by Thaddea Graham, her character's really into cosplay, and she helps Margot with her costumes for the Hungry Ghost character. That took... I had to be painted blue for three hours. That took a long time. What a cool job, though. What an amazing makeup and hair and all that. It really was. It was a great team. The costumes are also... I love when she gets into her OnlyFans phase, because it's also kind of DIY. They're just making the most of what they can get their hands on. Because for Margot, the OnlyFans is really this... It's a creative outlet for her, where she kind of finds her agency again, and after her relationship to her body, then it changes, obviously with motherhood and then being on OnlyFans. For her, it's kind of... She thought her dreams were going to die as this writer and this creative, but then through the platform, she finds that dream and creativity again. That's kind of our focus for it all. It's such a great team all around. Everybody's shooting it, everybody's working on it. It was really well done. It was this dream team. Well, you know all of them. They're all incredible. You mentioned doing the Nightingale last time with Dakota when you were here. Are you all shooting that now? We are. I'm in the middle. I will go back to Budapest in a couple days. What a life! That's amazing. We should shoot in Budapest. We've already shot a whole week together. I love it. Does she go into big sister mode? That's hard. I know. I was worried about that, that she'd be bossy. Honestly, she has not. Not been yet. I think we were like, is it going to be awkward or embarrassing acting on set? Because we'd never done it. Then, honestly, truthfully, it felt so effortless. This is exactly where we should be. She's my older sister. She might tell me, do this, do that, but not yet. That's family, though. Remember when you did this? That wasn't great. That's fine, too. We're honest. People that love you are honest, sometimes too honest. We need another break. Give it up for Elle Fanning!