Mild spoilers ahead.
Elle Fanning feels like a high schooler again. The 22-year-old is staying at home, eating breakfast fare—her sister Dakota had just baked cinnamon rolls before our chat—and stocking up on frozen foods. “We’re having like Eggos and Toaster Strudels,” she says on the other end of a Zoom call, smiling widely. “I’m going back to my child life, like high school.”
Fanning trades in those Eggos for eggs with shaved truffle on The Great, the regal new Hulu series which she executive produces and stars in as Catherine the Great, the famed 18th century empress of Russia. The 10-episode revisionist history comes from The Favourite scribe Tony McNamara, who injects the story with the same dark, whip-smart humor as his Oscar-nominated screenplay. It begins with an innocent Catherine arriving to Russia from Germany, hoping for a Prince Charming in her betrothed, Emperor Peter III, only to find … an absolute dick. Cleverly portrayed by Nicholas Hoult, the monarch is conceited, misogynistic, short-tempered, and has serious mommy and daddy issues. He’s quite an ill match for Fanning’s well-read and progressive Catherine, whose hopes to establish a school for women or improve her maid’s social ranking are crushed by her husband. So how does the empress go from Catherine, Peter’s wife, to Catherine the Great? McNamara suggests a twisted answer.
Fanning wasn’t deeply familiar with the empress before she landed the role. “I wasn’t taught about her in school or anything.” But she did hear of that bestiality rumor. “I knew that she had sex with a horse. The horse had sex with her. Or whatever. You know, crazy things that people made up, but that’s sadly all I knew.” Through her research, though, Fanning learned that Catherine embraced the Enlightenment, championed education, helped invent the roller coaster, and introduced the smallpox vaccine to Russia.
Just as Catherine adjusts to her new role as empress, Fanning also took on the “extremely exciting and nerve-wracking” task of executive producing for the first time. That involved going to meetings, pitching her ideas, and voicing her opinions behind the scenes. “It was new territory for me in every aspect,” Fanning says. But, like her onscreen counterpart, she emerges wiser on the other side—without the pet bears, glass-smashing, and bloodshed along the way.
As for what she hopes women take away from The Great, Fanning points to her character’s unwavering bravery. “I think Catherine is such an inspiring character and hopefully people will learn more about her as a historical figure and inspire others to do the daring thing,” she says. “Do what is in your mind telling you, Should I do it? I’m too afraid. Take that fear and use the fear to go forward in your life, whatever it may be, how big or small.”
How exactly did you do your research? Did you watch other movies about Catherine or crack the history books? It is a loose historical interpretation, so were you able to just contribute more of your original ideas to her character?
I read things about her, of course. It’s inspiring too. But I think for this, your imagination has to take over at some point. I read that she invented the roller coaster. Who knew. She must’ve been an extremely fun woman. I looked up her handwriting, just to see what that looks like. Obviously, it’s in Russian, but that was cool to get closer to her. But then at a certain point I realized I had to create my own version of her. I let my imagination take over at that point. I felt very free that we weren’t doing a like stuffy period piece. We were so anti that. Completely anti. And there was a real comfort in that, that I felt like I could really just be a real human being. Like, I could just be a woman and bring all of her complications and complexities and her strengths and a lot of her weaknesses too. Our version of Catherine has a real big, kind of fabulous ego and arrogance to her that I love. I love playing with that. And then she really makes mistakes too. She doesn’t always have the right answer, but I feel like she’s extremely curious. I think in all leaders, to have curiosity is probably their best quality.
Ollie Upton/Hulu
The physical transformation was pretty crazy. Were you involved in the wardrobe at all?
Yeah, we had a lot of screen tests beforehand to get it right. Obviously, the pilot was done before Hulu picked it up. So in the pilot I’m like, “Oh my wig looks a little bit different!” I can see that. But it’s good cause Catherine is coming from a whole new country. Russia has really transformed her and that transformation throughout the episodes is very subtle, but it’s also so key. Makeup and hair and costume, they were all very aware of that. We always adjusted things a bit slightly with the color palettes, cause when she comes she wears a lot of light blue. I would say Catherine’s colors are like blues and greens. So when you throw anything else into the mix or make it darker, that does a lot for the character. You see the shift.
The bright pink gown at the end, too.
Oh, you saw that? Yeah, that was my idea! I love pink. I’ve worn something similar to an event. It was like a Vivienne Westwood dress that was in this electric pink. I just loved that dress and I thought, “Gosh, it’s Catherine’s birthday. And she’s like going to kill her husband. She can’t just wear blue, she’s changed, she has to be in this electric pink.” And I think it really made a statement, that she’s finally being bold. ‘Cause a lot of the time she is wearing ice blues and light colors, a lot of pastels. Even when my hair’s up or my hair’s down. I mean everything was talked about at length.
Did that take hours in the trailer?
I got picked up at five thirty every morning, on the dot. And then it took two hours to get everything on because you also have to wrap your own hair and then put the wig on. And then I had a bit of makeup, not so much on that side but also still specific with just the powder that they would use. Everything was trying to also be a bit period-accurate in that way. And then getting the corset on and all the skirts and then even lacing up the dresses, that would take … overall I guess two hours.
I love your dynamic with Nicholas Hoult. You go from despising each other to tolerating each other to everything in between. How did you two work on building that chemistry?
Gosh, I mean Nick is so incredible. Like just as an actor and a person and what he’s done with Peter, that character, ’cause also Peter does just such evil things, but somehow Nick makes him very charming and likable to me when I watch the show. Like I just want to watch Peter, I think he’s hilarious, and I kinda feel bad for him. I think Nick’s really intricately woven in those kind of daddy and mommy issues that he has so brilliantly. I couldn’t ask for a better sparring partner to be in there.
My favorite scenes to do on the show were when Nick and I were going back and forth, like if it was at the breakfast table or like the long scene at the end that we had, and just battling it out. We would challenge each other completely too. I think that we work in a very similar way. And I don’t know if that’s because we both were child actors or like just being comfortable on a film set in that way. We’re so comfortable around each other and, and not embarrassed. Like we’ll kind of go for it and he’ll do something and I’ll try to push his buttons and top him. So it was just like the perfect dynamic for Catherine and Peter.
Ollie Upton/Hulu
Peter depends on Catherine a lot for approval or emotional stability or just ideas in general. I know it’s a satire, but a lot of modern relationships also jump out at me when I look at that. Did that resonate with you at all?
Oh, for sure. Yeah. I mean all of those elements are in there. It’s not a straightforward marriage for sure. [Laughs] I even think at times like, yeah, I think there’s this kind of codependency that not necessarily Catherine doesn’t have that, but Peter definitely depends on her. But then there’s something about that I think that Catherine’s like, he is endearing sometimes to her. And I think what also is great, what’s, what Tony has done is that even with all the characters in this show, she learns from each person in the court. ‘Cause she doesn’t have all the answers, but she’s observing and learning as she goes along. And, and even though Peter’s her worst enemy, she’s actually learning so much from him, whether it’s what to do or what completely not to do, but she’s observing and learning him a lot. They drive each other, for sure. But there’s a lot of modern things that still happen.
There are a lot of times when she’s doubted or people don’t believe in her. It’s her and room full of men mansplaining things to her in the court. This is so relevant to our time.
No, it is completely. All the themes are so much of today, whether that’s a good thing or a bad thing. Sadly they are relevant. It was interesting for me to be in those pitches. I’m a young woman finding my voice, but I’ve also learned to gain a confidence in myself cause I have been working for a long time as well and been on sets for a long time. I feel like I do know how things work, in a way. So to be able to be a producer on this, I felt like I was getting my voice like Catherine was. Cause it’s interesting to be in those pitches and in those meetings and to speak out. There is a voice inside your head that’s like, “I know what I’m talking about. I do know.” But you have to believe in yourself to be able to say it and to believe, cause there’s always going to be people who want to say, “Oh, you don’t know. You’re just like a young girl.” There’s always going to be people that are going to be up against you in all business, in every industry. So it’s just, how do you take that down?
Nothing has been confirmed yet, but if you did have the opportunity for another season, would you be down?
Oh yeah, I’d be down. Easy yes.
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