1. movies
“It was great,” he said, very seriously. “It was
all about how much stuff costs.”
Fanning, on the other hand, is freshly 18
and effervescent, all about expressive hand
gestures, wide eyes and easy laughter. The
juxtaposition between the two is jarring yet
refreshing; they work well together. And one
would hope so, given their history: She stars
in his new film, “The Neon Demon,” a pseudo
horror movie about beauty and narcissism
in the L.A. fashion dreamscape. Her role as
Jesse, a burgeoning model, is her darkest,
most mature one yet.
Fanning described Jesse as “the ultimate
beauty”—immediately sought after, yearned
for, emulated en masse. Hers is an allure that
goes beyond mere physicality, though. Much
ofthedesiredirectedtowardJesse,bothsexual
andotherwise,isfromotherwomen,astriking
changeinanindustryinwhichbeautyisusually
delineated by the eyes of male characters.
Instead, Jesse’s appeal feels more universal.
She’s described in the movie as being like the
sun in the middle of winter: luminous and im-
possible to ignore.
“I think it has mostly to do with her spirit
and kind of this aura around her of, you know,
princesses and fairy tales,” Fanning said. “It’s
purity, virginity, that youthfulness.”
Refn would describe this spiritual quality as
being that “thing,” a concept repeated several
times throughout the film as people fawn over
Jesse. The “thing,” Refn said, is an intangible
sense you have about someone—a feeling that
they’re special. It’s unmistakable and impos-
sible to replicate.
“You’re born with it,” he said. “Elle has it,
and that’s why she’s the only one who could
play the role.And I’ve worked with Ryan Gos-
ling before, who also has it. It’s that magic, it’s
just like a magnet. It’s a talent.”
“The Neon Demon” received a notably
polarized reaction from the Cannes Film
Festival audience earlier this year–a blend
of standing ovations, boos and (allegedly)
fistfights—but controversy has become
somewhat typical of Refn films. After he
netted the best director award at Cannes in
2011 for “Drive,” his 2013 movie “Only God
Forgives” left some critics unsettled by its
depiction of extreme violence. It too yielded
boos at the French film festival.
Despite that norm, he dismissed the idea
that he creates stories or plot points for the
sake of shock value.
“I think that anything that is singular will
always provoke, because you always have to
have an emotion to it. You have to react to
it,” Refn said. “I’m not interested in good and
bad, I’m interested in a reaction. Because I
think generally that creativity is a way to open
up one’s opinions to discussions.”
Despite its raciness, Fanning’s parents
were reportedly OK with the film’s content.
ByEmmaKrupp | FOR REDEYE
icolas Winding Refn and
Elle Fanning are a bit of an odd couple.
The 45-year-old Danish director, most famous for his 2011 film
“Drive,” is solemn—a purveyor of long, unperturbed eye contact.
When I asked him if he had a chance to do anything fun in Chicago before our
interview at theWaldorfAstoria Hotel, he told me that he’d gone on a boat tour to
see the city’s architecture.
Model
behaviorNicolas Winding Refn and Elle Fanning talk
controversy, narcissism & ‘The Neon Demon’
N
ElleFanningin‘TheNeonDemon’

2. She was still underage during filming, a fact
that both shielded her from participating in
some of the more graphic scenes and leaves
her feeling nostalgic now that the project is
fully wrapped. The set was home to a handful
of her most recent life milestones.
“I started when I was 16, and it’s been a
part of my life, and now it’s here and finally
coming out,” Fanning said. “So of course you
do feel older, but you know, I don’t feel like
an adult.
“Whatever that means,” she added, laugh-
ing.
Fanning’s grown up
somewhat steeped in
Hollywood culture—she
did her first movie at age
2, and her sister is actress
Dakota Fanning, in case
you haven’t figured that
out already—which has
left her protected from
the typical temptations
success brings for young
actors. She’s also glad to
have gotten the chance
to go to “regular” high
school, though the line
between those separate
worlds sometimes be-
came blurred. Her senior
prom night, for instance,
was spent at Cannes. She
struggled to pick a favor-
ite memory from the ex-
perience.
“Oh, just seeing the
movie for the first time with a big audience
like that, and having my best friend there,”
she recalled. “It was my first time going, so
it was very special. And then I turned 18, and
then I also graduated like a week ago.”
Refn has said that he made “The Neon
Demon” with a 16-year-old audience in mind,
and Fanning’s generation as a whole.They are
the ones who will have to face the “neon de-
mon” of the film’s title—a force that, although
open to interpretation, has been described by
Refn as something that consumes youth and
beauty. He said it’s something that you need
to avoid catching.
“Like a disease,” Fanning laughed.
Refn attributes the basic root of the neon
demon to pure narcissism, a quality he says is
newly epidemic within the world’s younger
generation.
“I think that the
generation that Elle
represents has a very in-
teresting acceptance of
narcissism,” Refn said.
“The idea that narcis-
sism is a virtue, it’s a
quality. I grew up with
it as a taboo. But I think
that the future genera-
tion kind of accepts the
individualistic in a dif-
ferent way. … And that’s
wherein, of course, the
neon demon lies.”
But in a way, Refn
said he thinks it’s impos-
sible to beat the neon
demon without falling
in love with yourself a
little bit—just a taste of
the poison in order to
recognize its power.
“In order to really
deal with it, you need to
accept the evolution; you need to accept nar-
cissism as a quality in order to pass through
it and deal with it,” he said. “It’s like the anti-
dote is on the other side.”
EMMA KRUPP IS THE INTERN FOR THE MASH,
REDEYE’S SISTER PUBLICATION.
@EMMAKRUPP1 | EKRUPP@CHICAGOTRIBUNE.COM
ElleFanningandNicolasWindingRefnAP
I’m not
interested in good
and bad, I’m
interested in a
reaction. Because
I think generally
that creativity is
a way to open up
one’s opinions to
discussions.”
—Nicolas Winding Refn,
director of “The Neon Demon”