Elle Fanning started her year delivering look after look on the awards circuit. But tonight, the star chose to take a break from the Met Gala. Fanning was not seen on the red carpet of the New York City event. She last spotted last week at the AFI Awards in Hollywood, where she wore a peach gown by Coach.
Fanning is a longtime Met Gala veteran. The 27-year-old star made her debut in 2011, when she was just 13 years old. She wore a semi-sheer Valentino minidress for the milestone moment:
While Fanning hasn’t given any major new interviews since awards season wrapped earlier this year, she opened up about her approach to fashion in a September interview with ELLE. “I like to express myself through my clothes,” she explained. “Each look in my everyday life is an expression of how I’m feeling that day.”
She also addressed the pressures of the entertainment industry, admitting that she’s “felt pressure to look a certain way, or to achieve things more quickly.” Fanning shared that she often has to remind herself that the images she sees on social media are often filtered to hide imperfections. “One image doesn’t convey the struggles someone has gone through to get to that place,” she said. “When it all seems easier for someone else, it’s usually not. And it’s our imperfections that make us all unique.”
In January 2025, Fanning shared more insights on navigating her public image during an interview with Harper’s Bazaar UK. The actress was discussing Bob Dylan’s attitude toward celebrity, a theme she explored in her project A Complete Unknown. Fanning reflected on how Dylan’s perspective shaped her own approach to fame and public scrutiny, emphasizing the importance of authenticity and staying true to oneself amid external pressures.
“Such a big question that the movie asks is, ‘Where do you draw the line between making up who you want to be, and the truth?’” she said. “Truth is so important—we should fight for it. But as an artist, it can be alluring [to distance parts of yourself from the public eye], and I find myself doing it at times, probably subconsciously because it’s a protection. Because if people know too much about you and your history, when they are watching you perform, they’re thinking about that, rather than your art. I think Dylan was really smart, and ahead of his time, about handling that. Creating a mystery so that people would focus on his music, or what he was doing on stage.”
