STACK J#165 Jul 2018

CINEMA FEATURE

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Mary Shelley also appears as a character in director Ken Russell's typically berserk and hallucinatory 1986 horror film Gothic . A fictionalised account of a meeting in 1816 between Lord Byron (Gabriel Byrne), Dr. John Polidori (Timothy Spall), Mary Godwin (Miranda Richardson) and her husband-to-be Percy Shelley (Julian Sands) at Byron's villa, the film purports that following a night of opium abuse, sexual shenanigans, paranoia and madness, Mary conceived the idea to write Frankenstein , while Polidori would go on to pen The Vampyre .

Elle Fanning plays the author of Frankenstein in the gothic biopic, Mary Shelley . Words Gill Pringle A bio-drama based on the illicit romance between poet Percy Shelley and 17- year-old Mary Wollstonecraft Godwin, Elle Fanning shines as the titular Mary Shelley, outlining the early erotic awakenings which led THERE'S SOMETHING ABOUT MARY

married Shelley. “Just like Mary, I felt like I was at a point in my life where I was changing, like I was going through a metamorphosis and, by the end of the movie, I definitely felt more mature; like a new chapter had begun. I felt like I learned something from Mary about how to be a woman, even though her life was very tragic. Who knows if she was ever completely happy? Nobody knows.

Gabriel Byrne as Lord Byron and Natasha Richardson as Mary Shelley in Gothic (1986)

the fledgling author to pen Frankenstein . Mary Shelley’s gothic horror romance

would arguably outlive her own prose, despite the novel being shunned by her peers at the time. No stranger to early

An enthusiastic writer in her own life, she hopes to direct in the future. “It would have to be something that personally resonates with me. That would be a dream,” says the actress whose films include Super 8 , We Bought a Zoo , Babel , Live By Night and The Curious Case of Benjamin Button . If she could go back in time, she has so many questions for Mary Shelley and how such a young woman would conceive of Frankenstein . “I would want to know how she felt that the monster in Frankenstein was her, because I think that’s what she believed – that Percy was Victor Frankenstein who had created the monster in her. I would be fascinated to hear her self reflection and the psychological analogy.” Although Mary Shelley’s relationship with her stepsister has heartbreaking consequences, Fanning enjoys delving into the bonds of sisterhood with her own older sibling, Dakota. “Sister bonds are like no other. No matter what, there is a protectiveness and support and an endless love which you will always share with a sibling,” she says. “Dakota is very oddly mothering toward me in a way which I love.” Currently reprising her role as Princess Aurora opposite Angelina Jolie in Maleficent 2 , later this year Fanning will be seen starring in Woody Allen’s comedy A Rainy Day in New York , and Max Minghella’s Brit music drama, Teen Spirit .

“Mary was very much in love with Percy and she got to be with him for the rest of her life. Hopefully I will never experience that loss in my own life or lose a child. It's unimaginable.

At the core of it, it's about a girl coming of age and accomplishing something tremendous

success, Fanning, 20, has been acting since

age three, portraying the younger version of her sister Dakota Fanning’s character in I Am Sam . When STACK caught up with the actress in Toronto, she says, “Its very rare when I do a film where there’s a lot of young

As an actress, you are often asked to do things that have never happened in your own life, so you just have to

imagine it.” Directed by Haifaa Al-Mansour, Bel Powley portrays Mary’s step-sister alongside Douglas Booth’s heartless Shelley and Tom Sturridge’s Lord Byron. Fanning’s accent is flawless thanks to her previous Brit films including Ginger & Rosa at age 13, preparing her for Maleficent two years later.

people together. I’m usually the youngest person surrounded by lots of adults, which I don’t find is a bad thing, but with this one it was really fun to all get to hang out. The bond was very strong right away and just grew during the course of the movie. “Mary believed in love at first sight and was a helpless romantic,” she adds, outlining Mary’s tragic life in which she would lose their first child, born prematurely. “At the core of it, its

about a girl coming of age and accomplishing something tremendous,” says Fanning, who was just 17 when she filmed Mary Shelley ; the same age Mary was when she fell in love with the then-

Mary Shelley is in cinemas on July 5

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