Actress Elle Fanning, the younger sister of actress Dakota Fanning, says she remembers being called “unfuckable” at 16-years-old by a “disgusting pig,” which ultimately cost her a movie role.
“I was very protected, I have an amazing manager and agent who’ve been with me since I was 8 or 9, same people, which is — [rare] — and I recognize that,” Elle Fanning, now 25-years-old, told the Hollywood Reporter.
Nonetheless, Fanning recalled an incident in which a “damaging” remark from someone at a film production did end up getting back to her.
“I’ve never told this story, but I was trying out for a movie. I didn’t get it. I don’t even think they ever made it, but it was a father-daughter road trip comedy,” the actress said.
“I didn’t hear from my agents because they wouldn’t tell me things like this — that filtration system is really important because there’s probably a lot more damaging comments that they filtered — but this one got to me,” Fanning explained.
“I was 16 years old, and a person said, ‘Oh, she didn’t get the father-daughter road trip comedy because she’s unfuckable,’” the Super 8 star said.
Fanning went on to call the incident “so disgusting.”
“And I can laugh at it now, like, ‘What a disgusting pig!’” the actress exclaimed.
Fanning is not the only actress to experience sexist remarks in Hollywood — an industry that is known for copious amounts of sexism and sexual harassment, while it ironically lectures everyday American people on how to behave.
Last year, actress Mena Suvari noted that being pulled into the sex abuse culture of Hollywood helped her nail her role in the 1999 film, American Beauty. Actress Keira Knightley has also said that every woman she knows has been sexually harassed in some way, which even include threats and violence.
Earlier this year, Netflix’s Stranger Things star Grace Van Dien said she quit acting after a producer on an unnamed movie suggested she join him for a threesome.
Actress Geena Davis has also slammed Hollywood sexism and ageism, stating that after she had won an Oscar, directors “wanted to make sure I knew my place.”
In 2020, actress Emma Thompson called out Hollywood’s casting sexism, stating that once a woman passes the age of 50, she becomes “invisible.” In 2018, actress Sandra Bullock revealed she had considered leaving Hollywood and quitting acting altogether after being made to feel less worthy than the men in her industry simply because she is female.
But what Hollywood is perhaps most infamous for is the information that came to light in 2017, when three decades’ worth of sexual misconduct allegations against the now-disgraced movie producer Harvey Weinstein were unearthed. Additionally, many in Hollywood appeared to have known about Weinstein’s behavior over the years, but said nothing about it.
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