Elle Fanning reflects on 'painful' childhood growth spurt

Elle Fanning went through a painful growth spurt at the age of 12.

The Hollywood actress started her career at the age of three starring in such movies as Daddy Day Care and The Curious Case of Benjamin Button. However, Elle has now spoken about the difficulties she faced when filming Sofia Coppola's Somewhere in 2010, as she shot up in height when she hit puberty.

"When I was 12, I grew seven inches in a year. And it hurt every day," she explained to The Guardian. "On Somewhere, I grew two shoe sizes during filming. And I would pass out a lot because I hadn't grown into my body. So that wasn't a great time. It definitely wasn't painless."

The 19-year-old now stands at 5ft 10in (177 cm) and feels comfortable with her height. She also enjoyed having the opportunity to work alongside Nicole Kidman in the movie The Beguiled, as the actress is one of the few other stars in Hollywood of a similar stature.

"Also, she's tall. And I'm tall," she smiled. "Tall actresses are few and far between. There's Uma Thurman, Nicole Kidman, I think that's about it, so we've got to stick together."

In the interview, Elle also spoke about what it was like to grow up in the shadow of her older sister Dakota Fanning, who has won acclaim for her roles in I Am Sam and The Twilight franchise.

But the star insisted that her parents never pushed her into show business and her mother Heather was particularly supportive of her decision to pursue a career in Hollywood.

"Mothers in the industry get a really bad name," sighed Elle. "Which is so not fair, because my mother is amazing and she sacrificed so much with her life out in Georgia, which she gave up to do this beautiful thing which is following a child's dream."