One young actress who was put forward for the part was Elle Fanning. The young sister of Dakota Fanning, Elle had already worked in the movies, most notably on The Curious Case Of Benjamin Button.

“I was thinking, ‘Oh, she’s going to be this professional Hollywood Kid, and probably not what I had in mind,’” Coppola recalls. “I wanted a kid who would feel real, and a contrast from the showbiz world. But we met Elle and were really taken with her.” Elle herself felt that Somewhere was “a movie where everything felt real, including Cleo’s relationship with her dad.” Now she just had to meet Dorff…