Elle Fanning on Glenn Close’s Hunger Games Look and a Cannes Winner

I’ll be honest: I did a double take when I first saw the new The Hunger Games: Sunrise on the Reaping photos. I’ve watched Glenn Close disappear into roles for decades, but this time I genuinely squinted at the screen and thought, “Wait, that’s her?” And apparently I’m not alone. Elle Fanning, her co-star in the upcoming prequel, says she barely recognized the Oscar-nominated legend once the makeup, wig, and whatever-else-they-did came together. If that’s not a sign that we’re in for something unsettling, I don’t know what is.

When Your Co-Star Doesn’t Look Like Themselves Anymore

Close has never been an actress who phones it in. Whether she’s playing a cruel aristocrat, a faded movie star, or a woman literally trapped in a room, she commits fully. But her turn as Drusilla Sickle — the ruthless Capitol escort assigned to District 12 in the new Hunger Games prequel — looks like another level entirely.

According to Fanning, the transformation was so complete that she didn’t clock her co-star right away on set. That’s the kind of thing actors always say in press interviews, but in this case the pictures back it up. Close’s face looks pulled, painted, and almost waxen, with a severe expression that says she’d smile while sentencing a teenager to death. It’s creepy in the best way.

What makes it work is that Close isn’t hiding behind the prosthetics; she’s using them. An eight-time Oscar nominee, she knows that the scariest villains aren’t the ones who snarl. They’re the ones who seem perfectly reasonable while doing something monstrous. Drusilla Sickle looks like she’s been hosting the Games long enough to treat them like a dinner party.

Why Drusilla Sickle Isn’t Just Another Capitol Clown

At first glance, Drusilla might seem like she’s filling the same glittery shoes as Effie Trinket. Both are Capitol escorts for District 12, both dress like they’ve raided a costume shop, and both are required to sell child murder as entertainment. But the vibe is completely different.

Effie, at least in the original films, was effervescent, naive, and slowly cracked open by the cruelty she witnessed. Drusilla Sickle, from what we’ve seen, looks like she cracked a long time ago. There’s something harder in her eyes, a sense that she’s not just going along with the Games but genuinely believes in the system. That’s a trickier role to play, and it’s exactly the kind of part Close can chew on.

It also helps that Sunrise on the Reaping is set during the 50th Hunger Games, the same bloody Quell that produced Haymitch Abernathy. The Capitol is still polished and cruel, but the world feels a little rougher, a little more frayed around the edges. Drusilla fits that mood. She doesn’t look like someone who shops for fun; she looks like someone who enjoys the paperwork.

On the Other Side of the World, a Much Quieter Elle Fanning

While the internet loses its mind over Capitol prosthetics, Fanning is also showing up in a completely different register. This Friday, August 28, 2026, Canal+ Box Office is airing Valeur sentimentale — or Sentimental Value — around 10:49 p.m. It’s the kind of film where nobody wears a wig made of butterflies and nobody gets thrown into an arena. Instead, it’s a slow, bruising family drama that won the Grand Prix at Cannes in 2025.

Directed by Joachim Trier, the story follows two sisters, Nora and Agnes, who are pulled back into their childhood home after their mother dies. Their father, Gustav, is a once-famous filmmaker played by Stellan Skarsgård, and he’s been absent for most of their lives. Now he wants to make one last movie about himself, and he’s casting Nora, a theater actress played by Renate Reinsve, in the lead role. Fanning rounds out the ensemble in a smaller but carefully chosen part.

What the film does best is let silence do the talking. Old resentments surface. People say the wrong thing at the wrong time. Nobody throws a punch, but the emotional hits land anyway. It’s the sort of movie that asks you to lean in, not sit back with popcorn.

A Quick Note on the Cannes Buzz

Trier has been making these intimate, character-driven dramas for years, and his reunion with Reinsve after The Worst Person in the World was always going to get attention. Winning the Grand Prix — basically second place at Cannes — put Valeur sentimentale on the map for audiences who don’t usually seek out Norwegian family sagas. The fact that it’s landing on Canal+ Box Office means you don’t even have to hunt for it.

What This Double Bill Says About Acting Range

Here’s the thing that struck me about Fanning’s summer: she’s bouncing between two totally different playgrounds. On one side, she’s in a massive franchise prequel with CGI arenas and Capitol couture. On the other, she’s in a Cannes-winning chamber piece where the biggest special effect is a strained family dinner.

Not every actor can do both. Some get comfortable in blockbuster mode and forget how to be still. Others do indie films beautifully but look lost when the budget gets too big. Fanning, somehow, keeps moving between the two without looking like she’s trying too hard.

And then there’s Glenn Close, who at this point in her career could easily coast on being a legend. Instead, she’s strapping on prosthetics and scaring her own castmates. That kind of hunger — pun maybe intended — is why she’s remained one of the most interesting performers alive, Oscar win or not.

Where to Watch Both Sides of Elle Fanning’s Year

If you want to make a night of it, here’s the breakdown:

• Canal+ Box Office: Catch Valeur sentimentale on Friday, August 28, 2026, at approximately 10:49 p.m. Look for Stellan Skarsgård, Renate Reinsve, and Elle Fanning in a quietly devastating family story.
• Theaters: Keep an eye out for The Hunger Games: Sunrise on the Reaping, due in November 2026, where Glenn Close’s Drusilla Sickle will almost certainly haunt your dreams.

Both projects remind me why I still pay attention to casting announcements. A good actor can make the smallest drama feel enormous and the biggest spectacle feel personal. Fanning and Close are doing both, sometimes in the same year.

So if you’re in the mood to be disturbed by Glenn Close and then gently wrecked by a Scandinavian family reunion, you’re in luck. August just got weird in the best possible way.