Sophie, Lily-Rose, and Co. at the 2016 Toronto Film Festival
A lot of notable young-actress movies (like Brooklyn, Trumbo, and The VVitch) were screened at the Toronto Film Festival last year, and it looks like this is the case again in 2016! Here are some of the current and former young actresses who attended, from youngest to oldest:
French-Canadian actress Sophie Nelisse ( The Book Thief), 16, was one of those honored at the festival's Rising Stars Break, held at Portland Variety on September 12. Her new drama Mean Dreams is premiering at the festival this year; she plays a girl who runs away with her troubled boyfriend (Josh Wiggins), and calls the role "not like the cute little perfect girl anymore ... very different than what I've played before."
Sophie and Mylene MacKay, another Rising Stars honoree, interviewing at the event. Sophie: "Obviously I want to win an Oscar one day, it's obviously a goal or a dream of mine, but I'm not ever going to choose a script just for that." Joey King has also said that one of her goals in life is to win an Oscar. Don't let Natalie Portman or anyone else discourage you, girls. Speaking of Natalie...
Lily-Rose Depp, 17, and Natalie Portman, 35, at the premiere of Planetarium at Roy Thomson Hall on September 10. Planetarium is a period drama in which they star as American sisters who work as professional mediums in 1930's Paris. Lily-Rose: "We just got along really well as soon as we met." Natalie: "It was great. We became very comfortable, very quickly."
Natalie has another film out at Toronto this year, Jackie, a biopic of former First Lady Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis. The role is being described as "Oscar bait," even though Natalie scorned the Oscars as "false idols" after she won one for Black Swan. She was also in Toronto last year for her Hebrew-language film A Tale of Love and Darkness.
Sunnie Pelant, 6, plays little Caroline Kennedy in Jackie. She didn't attend the Toronto Film Festival, but she shared this photo from the film on her Twitter page. Sunnie is already a TV veteran for her role as Bones and Booth's daughter Christine on Bones.
Shortly after announcing that she's dropping out of all her future film projects, Chloe Moretz, 19, attended the premiere of Brain on Fire at the Princess of Wales Theatre on September 16. The film is adapted from the book by journalist Susannah Calahan (Chloe), who at age 24 was hospitalized with a rare auto-immune disease that caused delusions. Bailee Madison, 16, who also attended the premiere (above with Chloe), tweeted afterwards: Goosebumps.What a courageous & tremendously important movie. @ChloeGMoretz @scahalan congratulations, you are changing lives. #BrainOnFire
One year after she was in Toronto for The VVitch, Anya Taylor-Joy, 20, attends the premiere of Barry at the Ryerson Theater on September 10. The film is a biopic about the young life of Barack Obama (played by Devon Terrell, above with Anya). Anya plays Charlotte, a character based on Obama's three college girlfriends. "Charlotte's really cool. She's really got her shit together. She challenges Barry - that was the most important thing we really had to bring. It was kind of a matching of equals."
Just a few days after promoting Brimstone at the Venice Film Festival, Dakota Fanning, 22, attended its Toronto premiere in this black velvet gown on September 12. In an interview at the festival, Dakota said although she had less than a month to prepare for the role before shooting began (she took the part after Mia Wasikowska dropped out), "I didn't have any trepidation. I just hoped that [director Martin Koolhoven] would want me to do it. I just read the script and really loved it. I felt it was very different from anything I had ever done. Any opportunity to have a strong female character be the lead of a film, we don't see that nearly enough."
Like her little sister Elle last year, Dakota has two films out at Toronto. She wore this green dress to the premiere American Pastoral at the Princess of Wales Theatre on September 9. The '60s-set drama is the directorial debut for Ewan McGregor ( August: Osage County), who also plays Dakota's father. She said of working with him: "It was a really special experience because a lot of times, when you connect with another actor in an intense way in a scene, really the only people that can ever truly understand that connection is the person that you're working with, and it's the job of the director to recognize it and be able to capture it."
And a few faces at the festival's InStyle Party, held at the Windsor Arms Hotel on September 10: Hailee Steinfeld, 19, Katherine McNamara, 20, and Evan Rachel Wood, 29.
Here's Shailene Woodley, 24, at the premiere of Snowden at Roy Thomson Hall on September 9. She attended the film festival to promote the political thriller, in which she plays the girlfriend of Edward Snowden, the NSA employee who leaked classified information to the press in 2013. But just like what happened at Comic Con, Shailene couldn't get away from questions about Allegiant going straight to TV. She said in a recent interview, "I didn't sign up to be in a television show."
Former child actress Gaby Hoffmann, now 34, at the premiere of Season 3 of her show Transparent at The Elgin on September 11. Transparent is nominated for Best Comedy Series and Best Supporting Actress for Gaby at the Emmys on September 18; Gaby lost this award last year, but maybe 2016 will be her year to win!
Former child actress Diane Lane, now 51, at the premiere of her film Paris Can Wait, at the Winter Garden Theatre on September 12. Diane's film debut, A Little Romance, was filmed in and around Paris, and so is this film, in which she plays a film producer's wife who rediscovers her zest for life during a road trip from Cannes to Paris.
French-Canadian actress Sophie Nelisse ( The Book Thief), 16, was one of those honored at the festival's Rising Stars Break, held at Portland Variety on September 12. Her new drama Mean Dreams is premiering at the festival this year; she plays a girl who runs away with her troubled boyfriend (Josh Wiggins), and calls the role "not like the cute little perfect girl anymore ... very different than what I've played before."
Sophie and Mylene MacKay, another Rising Stars honoree, interviewing at the event. Sophie: "Obviously I want to win an Oscar one day, it's obviously a goal or a dream of mine, but I'm not ever going to choose a script just for that." Joey King has also said that one of her goals in life is to win an Oscar. Don't let Natalie Portman or anyone else discourage you, girls. Speaking of Natalie...
Lily-Rose Depp, 17, and Natalie Portman, 35, at the premiere of Planetarium at Roy Thomson Hall on September 10. Planetarium is a period drama in which they star as American sisters who work as professional mediums in 1930's Paris. Lily-Rose: "We just got along really well as soon as we met." Natalie: "It was great. We became very comfortable, very quickly."
Natalie has another film out at Toronto this year, Jackie, a biopic of former First Lady Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis. The role is being described as "Oscar bait," even though Natalie scorned the Oscars as "false idols" after she won one for Black Swan. She was also in Toronto last year for her Hebrew-language film A Tale of Love and Darkness.
Sunnie Pelant, 6, plays little Caroline Kennedy in Jackie. She didn't attend the Toronto Film Festival, but she shared this photo from the film on her Twitter page. Sunnie is already a TV veteran for her role as Bones and Booth's daughter Christine on Bones.
Shortly after announcing that she's dropping out of all her future film projects, Chloe Moretz, 19, attended the premiere of Brain on Fire at the Princess of Wales Theatre on September 16. The film is adapted from the book by journalist Susannah Calahan (Chloe), who at age 24 was hospitalized with a rare auto-immune disease that caused delusions. Bailee Madison, 16, who also attended the premiere (above with Chloe), tweeted afterwards: Goosebumps.What a courageous & tremendously important movie. @ChloeGMoretz @scahalan congratulations, you are changing lives. #BrainOnFire
One year after she was in Toronto for The VVitch, Anya Taylor-Joy, 20, attends the premiere of Barry at the Ryerson Theater on September 10. The film is a biopic about the young life of Barack Obama (played by Devon Terrell, above with Anya). Anya plays Charlotte, a character based on Obama's three college girlfriends. "Charlotte's really cool. She's really got her shit together. She challenges Barry - that was the most important thing we really had to bring. It was kind of a matching of equals."
Just a few days after promoting Brimstone at the Venice Film Festival, Dakota Fanning, 22, attended its Toronto premiere in this black velvet gown on September 12. In an interview at the festival, Dakota said although she had less than a month to prepare for the role before shooting began (she took the part after Mia Wasikowska dropped out), "I didn't have any trepidation. I just hoped that [director Martin Koolhoven] would want me to do it. I just read the script and really loved it. I felt it was very different from anything I had ever done. Any opportunity to have a strong female character be the lead of a film, we don't see that nearly enough."
Like her little sister Elle last year, Dakota has two films out at Toronto. She wore this green dress to the premiere American Pastoral at the Princess of Wales Theatre on September 9. The '60s-set drama is the directorial debut for Ewan McGregor ( August: Osage County), who also plays Dakota's father. She said of working with him: "It was a really special experience because a lot of times, when you connect with another actor in an intense way in a scene, really the only people that can ever truly understand that connection is the person that you're working with, and it's the job of the director to recognize it and be able to capture it."
And a few faces at the festival's InStyle Party, held at the Windsor Arms Hotel on September 10: Hailee Steinfeld, 19, Katherine McNamara, 20, and Evan Rachel Wood, 29.
Here's Shailene Woodley, 24, at the premiere of Snowden at Roy Thomson Hall on September 9. She attended the film festival to promote the political thriller, in which she plays the girlfriend of Edward Snowden, the NSA employee who leaked classified information to the press in 2013. But just like what happened at Comic Con, Shailene couldn't get away from questions about Allegiant going straight to TV. She said in a recent interview, "I didn't sign up to be in a television show."
Former child actress Gaby Hoffmann, now 34, at the premiere of Season 3 of her show Transparent at The Elgin on September 11. Transparent is nominated for Best Comedy Series and Best Supporting Actress for Gaby at the Emmys on September 18; Gaby lost this award last year, but maybe 2016 will be her year to win!
Former child actress Diane Lane, now 51, at the premiere of her film Paris Can Wait, at the Winter Garden Theatre on September 12. Diane's film debut, A Little Romance, was filmed in and around Paris, and so is this film, in which she plays a film producer's wife who rediscovers her zest for life during a road trip from Cannes to Paris.