Happy Birthday, Elle Fanning! The actress turned 21 on April 9 and we kept the party going when she stopped by the studio on Thursday, April 18. The actress also dished on how she had to fight for her latest role in Teen Spirit, a musicalย in which she plays Violet, a shy teenager chasing her dreams of becoming a singer.
โI went to Las Vegas this past weekend and celebrated with my mom and my sister,โ Elle shared of how she celebrated the big 2-1. โIt was so much fun. Iโd been to Vegas before,ย but when youโre not 21, you canโt do anything, so finally drinking and gambling โ like all of the stuffย โIt was definitely like a tame experience, โฆ but I won quite a bit! I won like $445 โฆ so it was a lot of fun.โ
She also got together with friends ahead of heading to Sin City and sang karaoke at Los Angelesโ hidden karaoke bar Break Room 86.
โI really wanted to get like a martini,โ she laughed of her first drink. โI had to take a photo with the martini so on my actual actual birthday we did karaoke with all of my friends and sister and that was a surprise. โฆ Itโs like a secret kind of place you go through like a vending machine,โ she added of the hot spot. โThey open up the vending machine and you walk in and itโs like a whole bar like an arcade and karaoke.โ
And karaoke is indeedย a hidden talent of Elleโs, who has always wanted to be a singer.ย
In new film Teen Spirit, Elle plays Violet, a shy teenager with dreams of escaping her small town andย becoming a songstress. With the help of an unlikely mentor, she enters a local singing competition that will test her integrity, talent and ambition.ย
โShe loves to sing. She sings at like her local pubs and she makes it and gets to go on that whole journey,โ Elle added of her character, who she says was influenced by Grammy winnerย Dua Lipa.
โSinging has always been a secret passion of mine,โ Elle admitted. โIโve always dreamed of singing on a stage. When I was young, I wanted to be a pop star. I would listen to Fergie, Gwen Stefani and the Pussycat Dolls and Iโd dance so that was my thing and I sang in school, I did madrigals, โฆ so it was a passion of mine and I was always looking for a musical [role] and this finally came along but I had to prove myself to them because they donโt associate me to singing at all," she concluded. "I was not someone that they were looking at for the part. I had to really go after them.โย
Watch back the on-air moment in the video above for more and catch Teen Spirit in theaters now!