MEDIA > TRANSCRIPTS > TONIGHT SHOW WITH JAY LENO

Elle appeared on her first television talk show, The Tonight Show with Jay Leno, to promote Phoebe in Wonderland.
Tuesday March 10 2009

Jay Leno: Great reviews for her work in a new film called Phoebe in Wonderland, which is in selected theatres right now - please welcome Elle Fanning!
[Audience cheers and applause as Elle walks on stage]
Jay: Now, see I owe you an apology - when you used to come with your sister, Dakota, I would always call you 'Little Ellie'. But now that you're grown up, it's Elle.
Elle Fanning: [laughs] Yeah.
Jay: How are you?
Elle: I'm great!
Jay: Good, good.
Elle: I'm so excited.
Jay: What was your first acting role?
Elle: It was in I Am Sam, and I was 18 months.
Jay: 18 months.
Elle: Yeah, and I was swinging on the swing with Sean Penn...
Jay: Wow! Now why did you wait until 18 months?
[Audience laughter]
Jay: I mean, did you want to just have a normal life, and then later get into acting? [Elle laughs] Is that why you waited a little bit? Because I think it's good to wait, at that time. OK. I mean, do you actually remember that, being that young?
Elle: Yeah!
Jay: You were homeschooled for a long time...
Elle: I was.
Jay: And now you're going to regular school?
Elle: I am.
Jay: And how do you like that?
Elle: I love it! It's really, really fun. I was homeschooled through kindergarten, and then through third grade. And then last year I started regular school.
Jay: Now, were there boys in your homeschool?
Elle: There was...
Jay: No, I mean in your homeschool.
Elle: No, not in homeschool! No, in regular school.
Jay: So you have in regular school. Is that working out OK?
Elle: Yeah, it's good! OK, I have a story.
Jay: OK.
Elle: OK. It started out - so we got back from a field trip. And I sit next to - well, this was last year, but I sit next to this boy, and we were really bored; we were waiting on our parents to get back to the school. And so he was sort of tearing apart erasers, and flicking it. And then he flicked one, and it went in my ear.
[Audience laughter]
Jay: In your ear?
Elle: Yes! What are the odds of it going in my ear, you know what I mean? He flicked it, and then it just sort of flew in my ear, and I was sort of like: 'oh, oh no!' I didn't want to make him feel bad...
[Audience laughter]
Jay: Right.
Elle: So then I didn't, you know, tell him. I'm like this [covers ear], and I'm trying to get it out, but then I think I pushed it...
Jay: Keep pushing it in your brain!
Elle: Yeah, I know!
[Audience laughter]
Elle: So then I went to the teacher, and I'm like: "Can I go to the nurse? I think I have something in my ear." She's like: "Oh, sure." So I went to the nurse, my mom came, and we had to go to the doctor.
Jay: Wow, OK.
Elle: Yeah, and he brought out this huge magnifying glass, and was having in on my ear, and I was like: "Ah, OK!" And then he had, like, a tweezer, and was getting them out. And he was like: "Oh, wow, this is pretty down in there!" And I'm like: "Yeah." And so he finally got it out.
Jay: OK.
Elle: I always - I keep this... I have it in the eraser.
Jay: Is that what this is, here?
Elle: Yes. The eraser is in one of the little specimen jars...
Jay: This is the actual... Oh, I see, I don't want to damage it.
Elle: This is the actual one that went in my ear.
[Audience laughter]
Elle: And I keep things like that!
Jay: Let's get a shot of this right here, can you get a shot?
Elle: There it is!
Jay: It's the actual piece that was in her ear.
[Audience laughter]
Jay: Well let me ask you something - what did the boy say when he found out you had to go through, did he apologize?
Elle: Oh, he's like my best friend now. It brought us sort of closer.
[Audience laughter]
Jay: Oh.
Whoopi Goldberg: Do you think that's why he did it? To get to know you?
Elle: I don't know, it was a total accident, it was a total accident.
Whoopi: You think so? Oh, I don't know.
Elle: I think so.
[Audience laughter]
Whoopi: I don't know. I think he was like: "I like her, I wanna try to talk to her, I'm gonna check her out..."
Elle: [laughs] But he's so nice! We went back to school the next day, and he found out eventually. Once he found out, he's like: "Oh yeah, I made a three pointer!"
Whoopi: Oh, yeah.
[Audience laughter]
Elle: But what are the odds of it going in my ear? But he's so nice now. We just, like, laughed; it was so funny.
Jay: Are you afraid of things going in your ear now? Is it like a paranoid...?
Elle: Well, I saw this - it wasn't really because of that, but I saw this thing on TV, and there's this lady and like a cockroach got stuck in her ear...
Jay: Yeah.
[Whoopi and audience laughs]
Elle: So then I was really - I was sort of afraid that night, when I was sleeping. So then like, oh no! So I put the pillow over my ears.
Jay: You know a good way to keep cockroaches out of your ears? Put erasers in them.
[Audience laughter and applause]
Elle: Yeah. So I have the eraser on my bedside table.
Jay: Oh, OK. It's a lovely keepsake.
Whoopi: Have you named it? Does it have a name?
Elle: No...
Whoopi: Maybe you should name it, you know?
Elle: [Laughs] Yeah.
Whoopi: Yeah.
[Audience laughter]
Elle: Pinky, for like the Pink Pearl erasers.
Whoopi: Pinky! Yeah, I like that. Exactly.
[Audience laughter]
Jay: Now tell us about Phoebe in Wonderland, tell us about who you play, and what the movie's about.
Elle: It's about a girl named Phoebe - I play Phoebe - she's about my age, and she feels different. So she uses Alice in Wonderland to sort of cope with her problems.
Jay: OK.
Elle: And when she goes to school she feels like her classmates are different than her - and then one day when she's in her classroom, the drama teacher who's played by Patricia Clarkson - she's so great, I love her - she comes in, and she's like the new drama teacher at the school, and they sort of just click right away. And then she's, the drama teacher, do a whole play of Alice in Wonderland.
Jay: OK, now we have a clip here. What's this scene that we're going to see, do you know what this scene is?
Elle: Oh, yeah - it's about when Phoebe is running with the Red Queen, and then her mother comes out and the Red Queen disappears.
Jay: Let's take a look - here we go.
[Clip from Phoebe in Wonderland plays]
Jay Well, congratulations on the great reviews...
Elle: Thank you!
Jay: Do you read your reviews?
Elle: No, not really, I haven't.
Jay: You shouldn't - you know, good or bad, you just have fun doing what you do, a great job.
Elle: Thank you.
Jay: But I'll tell you - they are good.
Elle: Thank you!
Jay: It's in select theatres right now - Phoebe in Wonderland. Elle, thanks a lot!
Elle: Thank you!
Jay: Say hi to your sister for me.
Elle: I will!
Jay: Be right back with Keiysha Cole, right after this.
[Audience applause]

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