How Elle and Dakota Fanning Are Supporting Each Other's Careers

Dakota Fanning and her little sister, Elle Fanning, are both at the top of their game in Hollywood and a source tells Life & Style exclusively they’re tighter than ever while having each other’s backs and coping with the pressures of fame.

“They both say all the time how they’re each other’s best friend,” an insider tells Life & Style, revealing Elle, 27, and Dakota, 31, manage to keep a close bond amid their stellar careers.

“They talk constantly, even when they’re working on opposite sides of the world, they are in touch non-stop. When Elle’s on set, Dakota’s the one she FaceTime’s when she’s having a rough day, and vice versa,” add the sources. “They have a rule that no matter what, they never go more than two days without checking in, but they usually don’t even go that long.”

As of late, Elle has been celebrating the initial success of her recent project, Sentimental Value, in which she portrays Rachel Kemp. She plays a young Hollywood star who scores a part in an acclaimed filmmaker’s movie amid a complicated family dynamic.

The movie garnered a 15-minute standing ovation during the 78th annual Cannes Film Festival. Elle is also now slated to play the younger Effie Trinket in The Hunger Games: Sunrise on the Reaping.

Dakota, for her part, last appeared in The Perfect Couple and The Watchers in 2024, and it seems the siblings are looking forward to a potential collaboration in the future.

“We have plans for sure,” Elle said about joining forces with her famous sister in a future project, per Deadline.

Dakota got her start in the acting biz in 1999 when she was 5 years old, roughly two years before Elle made her mark in Tinseltown.

The sisters notably appeared in the 2001 movie I Am Sam, playing the older and younger version of the character Lucy.

They also later voiced the sisters in the English-language version of My Neighbor Totoro.

“We’re very supportive of each other. I’m very lucky to have a family member who’s in the business. She understands what it’s like and what you’re going through,” Elle gushed to Journalposts in September 2018. “Of course, we talk about [our] movies and, ‘Oh, what are you about to go do?’ And that’s exciting, but there’s other things to talk about.”

More recently, the dynamic duo were set to star in The Nightingale, which was about two sisters during WWII dealing with the German Occupation in France.

However, the project came to a halt due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

Sources tell Life & Style the talented sisters have proven to be each other’s biggest supporters time and time again.

“When they have premieres or big events, they help style each other and send outfit pics for approval if they’re not in the same city,” the insiders reveal. “It doesn’t matter if they’re far apart, they’re still completely intertwined.”

“Elle’s the first person that Dakota tells anything to because she just gets her, and Elle is the same way,” the insiders add. “They’ve always leaned on each other, even as little girls, and that’s even more apparent the older they get. When they’re together they complete each other’s sentences, they’re almost like twins in a lot of ways.”