Elle Fanning might only be 22, but she has some good stories — and a great memory.
On the May 21 episode of IMDb's "Movies That Changed My Life" podcast, the star of the new Hulu series "The Great" opened up about several of the films that, well, changed her life.
She shared a particularly fun anecdote about the first time she ever saw the 1984 fantasy movie "The NeverEnding Story."
"I was filming [2004's 'The] Door in the Floor.' I was 4 years old, because I turned 5 on that set, so I was around 4-5, and Bijou Phillips was in that movie and she played my [character's] nanny," Elle began. "She loved me — we would hang out on the set, do things together — [she'd] nanny me kind of [in real life]."
"So I went over to her apartment — she was dating John Lennon's son [Sean Lennon] at the time — I think it was his apartment — and John Lennon's piano was there," Elle explained.
It didn't mean anything to her at the time — at her age, she had no idea who John was, who The Beatles were, or that he was one of the most beloved or significant musicians ever to have lived. "I was so young, [I] wouldn't have cared but my grandmother dropped me off and my grandmother knew," Elle said. "When I'd gotten older, she was like, 'Do you realize where you were, what it was?' I [didn't] know."
While at Sean's place, Bijou whipped up some food for Elle that the young star remembers vividly. "We made macaroni and cheese. It was so good — so crunchy on top, so creamy in the middle — and she turned on 'NeverEnding Story.' I'd never seen it before," Elle recalls.
The movie stuck with her. "I was so scared — it affected me. I sobbed and sobbed when the horse went into the quicksand or the mud — the swamps of sadness. I mean, I was like, a wreck. I will remember that image always," Elle shared. "We were sitting on the couch. [Bijou] thought she'd traumatized me because it affected me so much."
Elle went on to watch the film many more times in the years that followed — though never again while so near a piece of music history. "Of course I've watched the movie many times after that just to figure out why it affected me so much," she explained. "And it still kind of does. It brings me back to my youth, what really got to me — and it got to me, that whole story."