Elle Fanning is Hulu’s MVP this year, in contention via both her edgy comedy series “The Great” and the dark limited series “The Girl From Plainville.” Not only does she star in both she also serves as an executive producer on the two projects.

“Hulu comments on my Instagram photos all the time,” she says. “And it’s always a boost from Hulu. They’re like, ‘Yes, Queen! You’re doing great!” It’s like, thanks, Hulu! Whoever’s running that, they’re really giving me a boost in the morning when I check my comments.”

That affirmation is appreciated by Fanning as she heads to London soon to shoot Season 3 of “The Great.” Last year, she kept a grueling schedule in which she filmed “The Girl From Plainville” just days after wrapping Season 2 of “The Great.”

“It was a complete 180,” she says. Fanning spoke to Variety’s Awards Circuit Podcast about both shows, and in particular what it took to research the story behind “The Girl From Plainville” and depict her character in an honest way. Also in this episode, we chat with “Pachinko” creator and showrunner Soo Hugh about the origins behind her Apple TV+ show, and what’s next. Listen below!

In “The Girl From Plainville,” Fanning plays Michelle Carter, the teen who was convicted of involuntary manslaughter for encouraging her boyfriend, Conrad Roy III, to end his life. It’s indeed a marked contrast to playing a rebel Catherine the Great in Hulu’s wild “The Great.” And at first, given the salacious nature of how the story of Carter and Roy was covered in the media, Fanning wasn’t so sure she was interested in the role.

The former child star, who is now 24 and garnering career-best notices for her work on a Hulu comedy series and limited series, reflects on growing up in the industry alongside Dakota, when she took ownership of her career and what led her to projects on the small screen.

Elle Fanning is a gifted actress who is already a widely respected veteran at the age of just 24. She is the younger of two sisters — Dakota is four years older — who both made tremendous impressions as child performers en route to impressive careers as young adults, with no major personal bumps along the way. Of her work on the big screen, she is perhaps best known for 2010’s Somewhere and 2017’s The Beguiled, both directed by Sofia Coppola. But she has also starred in films big and small under the direction of, among others, Francis Ford Coppola, J.J. Abrams, Alejandro Gonzalez Inarritu, David Fincher, Cameron Crowe, Sally Potter, Jay Roach, Mike Mills, Nicolas Winding Refn, John Cameron Mitchell, Tony Scott, Terry George, Ben Affleck and Woody Allen.

This year, Fanning played substantial parts on and executive produced two TV programs, both for Hulu, and both of which could bring her Emmy nominations to go with four prior Critics Choice Award noms, two Golden Globe Award noms, one Spirit Award nom and one SAG Award nom. The first is The Great, a comedy series on which she portrays Catherine the Great, who arrived at the Russian court of Emperor Peter III with a twinkly eyed vision of life as his wife, mother of his heir and reformer of an empire, only to get a rude awakening. And the second is The Girl From Plainville, a limited series on which she portrays Michelle Carter, a high school student in Massachusetts who encouraged her own boyfriend to kill himself, and then, after he did so in 2014, wound up on trial for involuntary manslaughter.

During a recent episode of THR’s Awards Chatter podcast, Fanning reflected on all of the above and more. You can listen to the full conversation or read excerpts of it below.

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Having acted since the age of two, Elle Fanning is a unique kind of veteran. Now, at 24, she knows her way around a set but still has the energy and fervor to take on new challenges, such as producing the shows she stars in, something she began doing in 2020 with The Great, followed by this year’s The Girl from Plainville, which is based on true events. The Great will soon start filming its third season. For Fanning, these roles have kept her on her proverbial toes, while allowing her to expand her skills as a producer.

DEADLINE: You were a producer on The Great. What has producing taught you about your profession that you maybe didn’t know before?

ELLE FANNING: I think I’m still learning in that aspect of being behind the scenes, but it’s always something that I’ve been really drawn towards. I think being a child actor, you grow up on film sets, but watching everyone else around you, watching other people make the decisions and put things together, and so I’ve always been fascinated by that. So now that I get to pull back the curtain and be in those rooms and be a part of conversations that I normally wouldn’t have been, I’m really happy in that place. I do thrive when I can get creative and strategize and think of the best way that we can put this show together.

The editing room for me, I was in it a lot during The Girl From Plainville, and I really enjoyed the editing process. The postproduction of it all and how editing can change so much if you just flip things around and choose other takes, and the nuance of that, I really loved. I’ve definitely grown into my voice. Weirdly, like, The Great and playing Catherine has helped me with that because she’s a young woman, and a lot of the time, is not looked on with the greatest respect. Learning from how Tony [McNamara, screenwriter] writes her and being able to, I don’t know, speak my mind. Especially because I have to remind myself, I am obviously very young and still learning, but at the same time, I’ve been acting since I was two. So, in a lot of ways, I think people like to think, “Well, you’re young, you don’t know.” It’s like, “Well, you know what, maybe I do this time?” Just learning to speak up and building that confidence, I’m enjoying that.

DEADLINE: You say that playing Catherine has helped you find your voice a bit more—how so? Are there any moments you can point to?

Elle Fanning joins Tiffany Haddish (“The Afterparty”), Keegan-Michael Key (“Schmigadoon!”), Natasha Lyonne (“Russian Doll”), Craig Robinson (“Killing It”) and Tyler James Williams (“Abbott Elementary”) on the Envelope Comedy Roundtable.

Full episode premieres Friday June 3, 2021 at 7PM PST on Spectrum News One.

TheWrap Emmys magazine: ”I’m sure if I watched a story of my life, I’d be like, ‘That’s nothing like what it was or who I am,’“ the actress said

There is an astonishing moment late in Hulu’s limited series “The Girl From Plainville” in which Elle Fanning seems to simultaneously twist her face into the masks representing comedy and tragedy, the perfect distillation of her character’s shattered psyche. The fact that she does so in reaction to an extended fantasy sequence involving a high school show choir performing Wheatus’ 22-year-old one-hit wonder “Teenage Dirtbag” makes it all the more impressive.

Based on the 2014 death of Conrad Roy and the subsequent involuntary manslaughter trial of his girlfriend, Michelle Carter, “The Girl From Plainville” seeks to demystify a case primarily defined by tabloid headlines screaming about the dangers of texting and her manipulation that may have led to his suicide. It brings nuance to its portrayal of the complicated relationship between the teens.

In taking the role of Michelle, Fanning was offered an opportunity to delve into a complicated character who, while infamous to the world at large, felt largely unknown, particularly with regard to Michelle’s own psychological issues. “It felt like a version of mental health that we hadn’t seen,” Fanning said. “And it’s seven years of her life, so she’s definitely in different phases at different times and showing growth, but also isolation. I think she was so alone and so desperate for attention.

“There’s probably no one in the world more dramatic than a teenage girl,” she added. “But it’s amplified in her case.”

The actress isn’t kidding, particularly with regard to just how Michelle’s dramatics are handled in the series, which features several musical fantasy sequences—like the one set to “Teenage Dirtbag”—where the character’s obsession with the TV series “Glee” bleeds into her reality. In one moment, Fanning and co-star Colton Ryan (who portrays Roy) break into an elaborate musical number, performing REO Speedwagon’s “Can’t Fight This Feeling” in the middle of a public street.

Through the years, there have been countless creators, producers, directors and actors who have gone without an Emmy Award. And then there are those lucky enough to earn multiple kudos for different projects — in the same year.

That could be the case for numerous stars leading up to the 2022 Emmys, with more than a dozen actors with multiple projects on the bubble. Elle Fanning is Hulu’s shining star this year, with both “The Great” and “The Girl From Plainville” in the conversation; not only does she lead the comedy and the dark drama, she also serves as an executive producer on both.

“I only had two weeks in between to go from ‘The Great’ to ‘The Girl From Plainville.’ So it was a complete 180 for sure,” says Fanning of wrapping the second season of the period comedy and heading into the true-crime story. “‘The Girl Form Plainville’ was a project that I knew was kind of looming. During filming ‘The Great,’ I knew that it was a project I had signed on to do. It was that daunting thing in the back of your head that you’re nervous about and actually don’t quite know what you’re going to do with the character yet. Honestly, during ‘The Great,’ I was really suppressing thinking about Michelle [Carter].”

During those two weeks, Fanning had to do the research to discover the real person past what the media knew about Carter, who was convicted of involuntary manslaughter in 2017 after encouraging her boyfriend to take his own life.

“There’s not a lot on her. There’s a lot of photographs and there are YouTube videos of her in court just sitting. She never testifies, she never speaks,” Fanning says. “It was really from the ground up.”

While she was hesitant to sign on as so many of those involved are still alive and affected, becoming a producer helped that skepticism.

Elle Fanning attends some events during the 75th annual Cannes film festival at Palais des Festivals on May 18, 2022 in Cannes. You can go to the gallery and enjoy more than 500 HQ photos!

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The L’Oréal ambassador has grown up on film, and stepping behind the camera has given her a new power.

She’s been in films and on the jury, and had some major fashion moments on the red carpet. Elle Fanning is back in Cannes to celebrate the 25th anniversary of L’Oréal Paris’ partnership with the film festival at a gala dinner Tuesday night.

The evening included the ladies of L’Oréal, with Viola Davis, Eva Longoria and Katherine Langford among them.

“They really lead by example. Everyone is very strong, opinionated, powerful women and L’Oréal Paris never deters anyone from speaking up and being their true sense of self. So I think for me, I’ve learned most watching them all just be entirely them and they’re entirely truthful to who they are, and I tried to live by that,” Fanning says.

She admits to it being hard growing up in the social media age, which brings a whole different type of pressure than being in the starring-role spotlight.

“You try to conform, you know, and especially with young girls these days, you want to tell them you don’t have to. There is no mold in life, even though sometimes you see a mold that you don’t necessarily fit into, and that’s OK. Everyone is completely different. We should be celebrating the power in the individual.”

Fanning prefers to let it all hang out on Instagram, including documenting a recent battle with eczema. “I posted that and showed this is [what’s happening to] my eyes. I’m embracing this and just trying to be honest. I try to be myself and not go to the dark side that you can fall into, which I have, looking at images and comparing yourself. But you have to remind yourself, it’s not real. It’s a curated life. And yeah it can be hard sometimes for sure, but that would be my message [to young girls].”

Fanning, who grew up on film after her first appearance at age three, has stepped into producing shows for “The Great” and “The Girl From Plainville.” Her years of experience on film sets — and constant curiosity about what was going on behind the camera — led her to the leadership role. “I’ve grown and I’m now very not afraid to speak up,” she says.

“I have so much fun with it,” the L’Oréal Paris International Spokesperson tells PEOPLE of working with her stylist Samantha McMillen on her show-stopping Cannes wardrobe

Preparing for the Cannes red carpet is a marathon, not a sprint. Just ask Elle Fanning, who spends months concepting her fashion moments with stylist Samantha McMillen.

“I have so much fun with it,” Elle tells PEOPLE at the 2022 Cannes Film Festival. “Samantha and I work closely together on coming up with the looks and designing clothes in our head, and I really enjoy the process.”

That process can be “time consuming” according to Fanning, 24, who says she collaborates closely with her hair, makeup and styling teams on “what character” she’ll channel on the carpet.

“I’ve always loved fashion, and Cannes is probably the biggest and the best red carpet in the world,” the L’Oréal Paris International Spokesperson says. “There’s nothing like it — it’s so wide on both sides so you have to think about the 360-degree view of the look.”

Fanning adds that there’s “no hiding” on the famous Palais des Festivals carpet and steps.

“It’s like the train has to be perfect — all around look has to bring the dramatics in some way.”

And bring the dramatics she did, hitting the Top Gun: Maverick premiere in a custom blush Armani Privé gown featuring intricate beading, a tulle overlay, fishtail train and romantic sweetheart neckline. She topped off the look with a dazzling Chopard diamond necklace and fabric from the dress tied into her romantic side-swept waves styled by Jenda.

Elle Fanning tells PEOPLE that she “was freaking out” and “sort of crying/blushing” while Tom Cruise praised her Wednesday at the Cannes Film Festival

Elle Fanning is still recovering after her shout-out from Tom Cruise.

Speaking to the audience at the premiere of his new movie Top Gun: Maverick Wednesday at the Cannes Film Festival, Cruise, 59, praised Elle, 24, while sharing an early memory of the “very talented actress.”

“And it’s wonderful to see you here, and see your sister,” Cruise added, referencing Elle’s older sister Dakota Fanning, with whom he starred in 2005’s War of the Worlds.

Elle — who smiled widely from her seat during Cruise’s speech — told PEOPLE after the event that she “was freaking out” and “sort of crying/blushing” during the sweet moment.

“I was waking up pinching myself. Did that really happen last night? Was I dreaming?” adds the actress and L’Oréal Paris International Spokesperson.

During his speech, Cruise praised Elle and Dakota, 28, for their acting talent and ambition at a young age, after first meeting them as children.