The star says goodbye to The Great and hello the Great White Way in the new family drama, Appropriate.

Elle Fanning is sitting in her dressing room at The Hayes Theater in New York City, struggling to communicate with a delivery man dropping off her dinner. It’s the smallest theater on Broadway, according to the actress, but her Postmates driver cannot seem to find her. She’s taken a pause on discussing her latest project—a role alongside Sarah Paulson and Corey Stoll in the new Broadway family drama, Appropriate—to wrangle the sushi order. Understandably, she’s a bit distracted.

In fact, there are a lot of things on Fanning’s mind when she sits down for a video call with W from her dressing room, which she shares with another Appropriate costar, Succession’s Natalie Gold. The 25-year-old is busy painting her nails black for the performance that evening. “I have to do my own hair and makeup,” she says between swipes. “They really trust you on Broadway.” This is just one of the many aspects of live theater Fanning has learned during her time working on Appropriate. Despite making her acting debut at just three years old as a younger version of her sister, Dakota Fanning, in the 2001 film I Am Sam, Fanning never got the opportunity to take her career onto the stage in the 22 years since.

Then, about eight months ago, the script for Branden Jacobs-Jenkins’s show came across her desk. Fanning immediately put it to the side, assuming her schedule wouldn’t allow for Broadway—she was, after all, fully booked with her Hulu show, The Great, plus her upcoming Timothée Chalamet-led Bob Dylan biopic, A Complete Unknown. “I was upset because it was so undeniably good,” she says of the script. “Just one of the best things I’d ever read.”

Jacobs-Jenkins’s play, which first debuted at the Actors Theatre of Louisville in the Humana Festival of New American Plays in 2013, is a classic dysfunctional family drama in the vein of Tennessee Williams and Tracy Letts. Appropriate tells the story of the three Lafayette siblings who descend on their father’s cluttered Arkansas plantation following his death. As the family cleans out the house, they discover some egregious items, forcing them to rethink everything they thought they knew about their father.

Watching the Lila Neugebauer-directed production, which officially opens on December 18, one can understand why Fanning felt disappointed at the idea of missing out on acting in the show. It’s a gripping two-and-a-half-hour drama that expertly explores themes of familial ties, buried trauma, and normalized racism. But when her schedule fell open—due in part to the recent cancellation of The Great—she was able to fulfill one of her dreams and get on stage. “It just slid in perfectly,” Fanning says of the show’s scheduled run. “I was like, ‘This is my time. Bring me to Broadway.’”
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Elle Fanning attends the 81st Annual Golden Globe Awards at The Beverly Hilton on January 07, 2024 in Beverly Hills, California. You can go to the gallery to take a look to the beautiful photos and enjoy!

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“I always want to challenge myself. I feel safe when I feel nervous or terrified because I feel like it’s telling me that I’m doing the right thing, and I’m in the right place,” Fanning says.

When she was playing Catherine on Hulu’s The Great, Elle Fanning’s co-stars often encouraged her to do theater. Many of them had stage experience, and after watching Fanning’s Emmy-nominated turn on the show, which itself was adapted from a play, they told her she was ready. With that encouragement, and her own motivation to try the medium, Fanning accepted the offer to make her Broadway debut in Branden Jacobs-Jenkins’ darkly comedic family drama Appropriate this winter.

It’s her first stage experience, aside from playing Persephone in a mandatory sixth-grade school play, and she’s been learning the ropes from co-stars including Sarah Paulson and her director, Lila Neugebauer. She’s quick to admit that she’s still “extremely nervous” to act onstage, but she’s learned to welcome that feeling.

“I always want to challenge myself. I feel safe when I feel nervous or terrified because I feel like it’s telling me that I’m doing the right thing, and I’m in the right place,” Fanning says. “Normally really good, interesting things come out when you’re nervous or on the back foot, because you’re just lost in yourself. There’s no time to react.”

When she received the script for Appropriate, she was drawn to the writing and to the role of River, a free-spirited young woman who’s trying to keep the peace among siblings settling their father’s estate — and uncovering disturbing family secrets in the process. But she did not think she could join the Broadway run because of her filming schedule.

Then came the cancellation of The Great after three seasons. After being approached again by Neugebauer, she agreed to take on the role. The timing also aligned with the start date of her next film project, the strike-delayed Bob Dylan biopic A Complete Unknown, which is scheduled to start immediately after the play’s limited run.
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Elle Fanning attends the “Appropriate” Photo Call at Sardi’s on November 10, 2023 in New York City. You can go to the gallery to take a look to the photos and enjoy!

If you like the updates and want to help this site to keep online, please, feel free to go here to donate. Things are not good and I really need help to keep the site. Every little bit helps!