Elle Fanning and Nicholas Hoult could hardly maintain their composure while shooting their final scenes together on “The Great.” For three seasons on the anti-historical Hulu dramedy series, the Emmy-nominated actors, who first worked together in the 2014 sci-fi film “Young Ones,” have gone toe-to-toe as Empress Catherine the Great and Peter III of Russia.

Although they have survived more than most couples — she staged a successful coup against him and nearly stabbed him to death, whereas he slept with and accidentally killed her mother — Catherine and Peter’s deep-seated animosity belies a growing affection that neither is able to fully articulate until just moments before one of them meets an untimely (and icy) end in the latest season. Stop reading now if you don’t want to know those details.

“I think we can both appreciate that it was so special to get to play these characters and be in those scenes together,” Hoult says. “Knowing that it was the last time we’d get to do that was very difficult.”

On a recent video call — Fanning from Los Angeles and Hoult from Calgary — the co-stars discussed the evolution of Catherine and Peter’s relationship and their plans to work together again in the future.

Catherine and Peter have taken the ups and downs of a married couple to the nth degree, but they seem to arrive at a place of reconciliation this season.

Fanning: I think Catherine says a line early on this season, “For us to move forward, we have to leave the past behind.” But the past inevitably always does creep back. The outside influence of the court and the ghost of his father are telling him that being a good father isn’t enough, which is quite sad, and that he needs to have some huge, powerful legacy and have done something like win a war. I think if it wasn’t for those outside forces gnawing at Peter, they probably would be OK. If they were just on a desert island together, they would probably want to kill each other at times — like a “Mr. and Mrs. Smith” situation — but they do always inevitably come back together and love each other in the end.

Hoult: You’ve struck the nail on the head, because that’s what’s fun about this season. It’s this breakdown of, “How much baggage is too much? How can you rebuild trust and love after terrible things have happened?” And I think, ultimately, Catherine and Peter get each other enough where they could [move on], and it’s actually the environment around them that prevents them from finding happiness.
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Elle Fanning attends the “Jeanne du Barry” Screening & opening ceremony red carpet at the 76th annual Cannes film festival at Palais des Festivals on May 16, 2023 in Cannes. You can go to the gallery to take a look to the beautiful photos!

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!

Elle Fanning (The Great) is set to star alongside Timothée Chalamet and Monica Barbaro in A Complete Unknown, the Bob Dylan biopic that two-time Oscar nominee James Mangold is directing for Searchlight Pictures.

The film heading into production in New York this summer watches as a young Dylan (Chalamet) shakes up the music world in 1965, as he pivots to performing with an electric guitar for the first time. Fanning will play the role of Dylan’s early ’60s love interest, university student and artist Sylvie Russo.

Jay Cocks (Gangs of New York) wrote the script, with Mangold handling revisions. Dylan’s longtime manager Jeff Rosen will produce alongside Veritas Entertainment Group’s Bob Bookman, Alan Gasmer and Peter Jaysen, Automatik’s Fred Berger, The Picture Company’s Alex Heineman, and Mangold. Exec producers include Dylan, as well as Automatik’s Brian Kavanaugh-Jones and Andrew Rona.

Recognized thus far in her career with nominations at the Emmys, Critics’ Choice Awards, Golden Globes, SAG Awards, Gotham Awards and Independent Spirit Awards, Fanning currently leads the historical satire The Great from creator Tony McNamara, which returned for its third season on Hulu on May 12th. The in-demand actress previously led Hulu’s crime drama miniseries The Girl from Plainville and has also previously starred in two Maleficent films for Disney, as well as such titles as Teen Spirit, Mary Shelley, The Beguiled, 20th Century Women, The Neon Demon, Trumbo, We Bought a Zoo, Twixt, Super 8, Somewhere, The Curious Case of Benjamin Button and Babel.

Fanning is repped by UTA, Echo Lake Entertainment, and Hansen, Jacobson, Teller. [Source]

Smash a glass and cheer huzzah, because The Great is back for season 3.

The new 10-episode season drops in all of its raunchy glory on Friday, and EW caught up with star and executive producer Elle Fanning to get all the juicy details.

The episodes pick up exactly one day after the events of last season, which, to recap, saw Catherine (Fanning) finally learn that Peter (Nicholas Hoult) had slept with her mother (guest star Gillian Anderson) and more or less caused her to fall out a window to her death. Because of this, Catherine brutally stabbed who she thought was Peter, but was later revealed to be his decoy lookalike, Pugachev (also played by Hoult).

To start season 3, Catherine is grappling with the weighty implications of all that as threats old and new to her ambitious reign rear their heads. Surprising alliances will begin, some will end, and, as is the way with The Great, all sorts of shenanigans will go down along the way.

Here, Fanning breaks it all down for us.

ENTERTAINMENT WEEKLY: Let’s start with what’s new for Catherine this season. What new sides to her did you get to explore this year?

ELLE FANNING: Each season Catherine has grown, but I wouldn’t say she’s always grown in an upwards direction, which is why I think I love playing her so much, because it is unpredictable. I think from the first season, she was so idealistic and romantic and almost naive. And that naïveté is not gone. It’s not completely gone this season, but it is definitely dwindling. I also think she’s kind of growing downwards. We are seeing Catherine falter a bit this season in the leadership role. And I think that’s mostly because it could be in some ways that she is almost too progressive for the court. Her country isn’t ready in some ways to implement the ideals that she wants to implement. And they are amazing ideas. She has these incredible thoughts that she wants to break through, but she has to also learn to compromise and to be empathetic to other people, because I think a lot of the time she’s very wordy, and has this kind of flowery language, and does a lot of speeches. And it’s like, alright, can you put the money where your mouth is, in a way? And can you walk the walk and talk the talk? I think she’s learning that she needs to compromise on the leadership front.

Is she doubting herself?
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