These child stars are famous sisters who have both worked with massive Hollywood legends.

One costarred with Tom Cruise and Sean Penn, the other with Angelina Jolie and Timothee Chalamet.

Now they have posed together for the October cover of Vanity Fair but they don’t look very recognizable as one had a flower to her lips and the other wore her hair bigger than usual.

Inside the magazine the ladies talk being former child stars as they explain why they never went astray like most Tinseltown vets do.

Do you know who these siblings are?

These child stars are famous sisters who have both worked with massive Hollywood legends. Who are they?

They are Dakota and Elle Fanning.

Now 31 and 27, the Fannings have been famous nearly all their lives.

‘Why aren’t they more…. “F***ed up?” says Elle.

She laughed then said, ‘We’re like, “We’re so f***ed up. You don’t even know the half.”‘

‘Even though we were young in this business, I don’t feel like I missed out on anything. People want us to feel like we missed out. They love that narrative.’

They are then asked if they are competitive. ‘Zero. We obviously share a lot but we’re very different. So I don’t even see something that’s right for her as being right for me. I don’t feel competitive. But I know that people probably don’t believe that,’ said Dakota.

Dakota is in the Peacock limited series All Her Fault while Elle appears in Joachim Trier’s Sentimental Value and the sci-fi blockbuster Predator: Badlands.

They are set to produce and star in The Nightingale, their very first time onscreen as costars.

‘We’ve literally never done a scene together, ever,’ Dakota said.

They are Dakota and Elle Fanning . Now 31 and 27, the Fannings have been famous nearly all their lives. ‘Why aren’t they more…. “F***ed up?” says Elle. She laughed then said, ‘We’re like, “We’re so f***ed up. You don’t even know the half”‘

They’ll produce the project alongside Reese Witherspoon.

‘When we were younger, we wanted to make sure that people saw us differently, and we wanted to give each other space to carve our own path,’ said Elle. ‘But as adults, it’s been very fulfilling to merge.’

Elle made her big-screen debut in 2001 at the age of two as the younger version of Dakota’s character in I Am Sam.

‘Elle was just toddling around the set, this little towhead, not a care in the world,’ Michelle Pfeiffer, who also starred in the film, said. ‘Their personalities were kind of set in that Elle is a little more free-spirited and Dakota’s slightly more serious.’

Now they are more alike but Dakota said she has ‘changed as I’ve gotten older. I just want her to have everything that she wants. What’s mine is hers, and I feel the same thing back from her. We have that mentality in our family. When something good happens, it’s shared by all of us, because we’ve all helped each other get to where we are.’

Elle added, ‘Dakota was always there to protect me. It’s molded both of us, the responsibility that she’s felt—that I don’t even know that she’s felt.’

They are then asked if they are competitive. ‘Zero. We obviously share a lot but we’re very different. So I don’t even see something that’s right for her as being right for me. I don’t feel competitive. But I know that people probably don’t believe that,’ said Dakota

Dakota is in the Peacock limited series All Her Fault while Elle appears in Joachim Trier’s Sentimental Value and the sci-fi blockbuster Predator: Badlands

The Fannings have formed a production company called Lewellen Pictures.

Along with The Nightingale, the Fannings are working on a Hulu true crime docuseries out in September. 

And they will work on a TV series adaptation of Paris Hilton’s memoir, the rights to which A24 acquired on their behalf in 2023. 

They’ve met with Hilton at her home to discuss a TV project.

Hilton met Dakota while filming a cameo for The Cat in the Hat back in 2003.  

‘They grew up watching my career unfold, so they understand both the cultural impact and the personal journey behind it,’ said Hilton. ‘They see beyond the catchphrases and sparkle.’

Elle and Dakota’s parents Joy and Steven separated in 2016.  

‘I don’t think we should go there,’ Dakota said. ‘It is a longer story that I just don’t think we feel comfortable to share.’

Ell then said: ‘She knows all my secrets and I know all of hers. I relish the fact that I can protect her because she needs protection too.’ 

Dakota at Jas Mathur’s 2025 Emmys afterparty in West Hollywood

Elle also talked her boyfriend, Rolling Stone executive chairman Gus Wenner. 

‘If your partner doesn’t post you on Instagram, that’s a red flag. I love my boyfriend, and we’re going to post each other,’ she said. ‘I’m so happy. And Dakota loves him. That’s the seal of approval.’

Dakota is currently single: ‘I’ve had some doozies lately! But one day….’ But she has tried Raya: ‘I did it for fun. My girlfriend made it for me.… I was like, if I don’t, then I’m going to think…’

‘Maybe my husband is there,’ Elle finished.

‘I can confirm that he is not,’ said Dakota.

‘I haven’t seen a ton of familiar faces yet,’ Dakota said.

Dakota then said that because of Elle, ‘I’m able to have confidence and security in my life. If I lost every friend I have on the planet—’

‘The extremes! Elle shouted, dabbing her eyes with a cloth napkin.

Dakota added, ‘If everyone in my life stopped talking to me, I’d be devastated. But if I still had my sister, I’d be like, “Well, I have her.”‘