Elle Fanning and the cast of Mary Shelley didn’t know much about the author before reading the script

Haifaa al-Mansour’s new film Mary Shelley tells the story of the world-famous novelist when she was know as Mary Godwin. Starring Elle Fanning as the eponymous author, the film begins when Godwin is just 18, and follows the events in her life that inspired her to write Frankenstein, including her relationship with Romantic poet Percy Bysshe Shelley (Jupiter Ascending’s Douglas Booth). At the premiere, we spoke with Fanning, Booth, and Bel Powley (who plays Shelley’s stepsister, Claire Clairmont) about the film and their relationship with the author.