Elle and Dakota Fanning grew up in front of us on the silver screen.
The sisters, who are now 27 and 32, first appeared on-screen together in the 2001 film I Am Sam. Now, they own their own production company and are set to star as sisters in a highly-anticipated film adaptation.
Scroll on to read more about Elle and Dakota Fanning’s close sister bond.
When did Elle and Dakota Fanning start acting?
The sisters were raised by their parents in Conyers, Georgia, before the family relocated to LA when Dakota began booking more acting roles.
“I was raised by very traditional Southern parents with Southern manners,” Dakota explained in a 2010 New York Times Magazine profile. “You don’t air your dirty laundry to people that aren’t your family or your friends. Why would I ever want to portray myself as anything other than together?”
In a 2019 interview with Porter, Elle said they would put on performances around the house as chidlren.
“My sister and I would play these elaborate scenes around the house,” she told the publication. “Like birthing scenes. I would be the baby, coming out.”
Dakota starred in a couple of commercials before “accidentally” landing her first big role in a TV show and movie.
“It all started so coincidentally for me,” she said. “I did this commercial, and I had a good time so I did another one, then I did a TV show which turned into a movie and then I was an actor all of a sudden. I wasn’t a kid that was like, ‘I want to be in the movies,’ she explained during a panel at the 2018 Sundance Film Festival.
“I just liked to play around the house and make up scenarios, and my mum kind of noticed that I was disinterested in all of the lessons she put me in. I just wanted to play at home so she put me in a drama camp to see if I liked doing that.”
Elle was then cast beside Dakota in I Am Sam before going on to star in The Great, Super 8 and most recently, Margo’s Got Money Troubles.
Have Elle and Dakota Fanning starred in anything together?
Since co-starring in 2001’s I Am Sam, the sisters haven’t yet had to chance to star alongside each other again.
In 2019, they announced their plans to play sisters in an adaptation of the novel, The Nightingale. However, that production is only going ahead as of 2026 due to COVID delays.
“It’s a very rare and special thing that we both do this,” Elle told Porter in 2022. “We can’t have the first time over again, so we want it to be the right thing.”
“There’s something in the air where all the creatives have the one idea at the same time and I feel like now lots of sister things are coming to us,” she also told the Happy Sad Confused podcast in 2023.
“We’re like, ‘We can’t just work together now on everything!’ But we did also think it kind of might be really fun to do different sister stories always. But we have to do the first one first.”
In 2021, the sisters started their own production company, Lewellen Pictures and produced the true crime series The Girl from Plainville, with Elle starring as Michelle Carter.
What have Elle and Dakota Fanning said about each other?
The sisters often gush about each other’s acting ability and their strong bond.
“The best thing that has ever happened to me is being given Elle as my sister,” Dakota wrote on Instagram, marking Elle’s birthday. “With every passing year, my gratitude for her deepens, even when it feels like that couldn’t be possible. She is magic, and I’m so lucky that she is mine.”
When Dakota’s 30th birthday came around in 2025, Elle said her big sister was her “favourite person”.
“I could sit and listen to you talk for hours, in fact that is my favourite place to be…absorbing your advice, your fascinating view of the world,” she wrote. “I have always felt safest with you by my side. She is the epitome of what a big sister should be.
“She’s absolutely nuts 😂 but will fight for her friends till the bitter end. I love you I love you I love you.”
They’ve also spoken about how they’re each other’s biggest cheerleaders.
“My sister, Elle, and I are really close. We always have been. We’re very different, but we’re very connected. We don’t talk every day, but we don’t have to. We just have that special bond,” Dakota told Shape in 2019.
“There’s no one I want to succeed more in this business than my sister, and I know she wants the same for me.”
