At 14, Elle Fanning is already a seasoned actor. In “Ginger & Rosa,” her 17th feature film, she plays Ginger, a young girl trying to cope with the turmoil of relationships and geopolitics in early 1960s London. She spoke by phone from Cape Town, South Africa.

You told director Sally Potter that you feltlikeyou grew up during “Ginger & Rosa.” What did you mean by that?

I first read the script when I was 12, and I auditioned when I was 12, which was much younger than the age Sally had initially written in the script. And after she wanted me to do it, she erased the age and said, “That doesn’t matter. Don’t worry about that.” That was nice, and I filmed it when I was 13. During that time I felt like in a weird way I wasn’t myself just because I had the accent and the red hair. And then when I got home and had my blond hair back and was talking in my American accent, it sort of snapped me back, and I’m like, “Oh, wow, I think I’ve matured!”

Did you know much about the ’60s before making this film?

Not that much. Like the ’60s I knew were like the Twiggy ’60s, like little baby doll dresses and the eyeliner. I knew the glamorized ’60s, I guess. I didn’t know this side of it, especially since our film is not quite into the ’60s yet, it’s still coming out of the ’50s. You especially see that in Christina [Hendricks]‘s character, because she’s still the ’50s housewife and me and Alice [Englert, who plays Rosa], we’re becoming more like the rebellious ’60s that you think of.

Speaking of Christina’s character, did you have any sense of how much harder it was for women then, before making the film?

I guess I didn’t. That was something I realized along the way, that it was a man’s world back then. They were supposed to do dishes and you’re supposed to cook the food and that’s your role. And now, it’s not like that at all.

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