Elle Fanning escapes with fantasy

Elle Fanning enjoys the “escape” fantasy films provide.

The 16-year-old actress voices character Winnie in forthcoming animated comedy, The Boxtrolls.

And the star, who also starred opposite Angelina Jolie in 2014 Disney release Maleficent, is elated to have been involved with so many fantasy genre movies at this point in her career.

“It’s fun because you can escape and learn about what other people’s minds have created. It inspires you to think maybe you could come up with a creature yourself,” she told Collider.

“It’s like, ‘I can escape from this world and live in a different world for the two hours of this film.’ Then when I walk out of the movie theatre, I can still be thinking about it and maybe I’ll still be living in that world.”

Voicing a persona was a distinct experience for Elle, who normally takes on live action roles.

And she used a lot of tricks to help her remain in character while recording her character’s voice for The Boxtrolls.

“The first time we did it, I was trying to use my face and my eyes more so and really portray that emotion, and that didn’t matter. I realised you have to bring that emotion into the way you sound, and all those different layers have to be in your voice instead of the way you are wrinkling your eyebrows or whatever. I had to learn how to do that,” she explained.

“In a weird way, you try to create a climate for yourself in your head. Even if it’s not the way the animators are animating it, it’s what you imagine so you can step into a place and it won’t sound weird. If you’re in a tunnel, you have to imagine you’re in the tunnel, and you’re screaming because they’re far away. You have to create that for yourself.”

The Boxtrolls is released to US theatres September 26.