Hailee Steinfeld was only 13 or 14 when she made her feature film debut as Mattie Ross in the Coen Brothers take on TRUE GRIT, but if you saw the movie, you likely will never forget her work. She was brash, vulnerable and able to stand toe to toe with Jeff Bridges and a horde of very bad men for the entire work. For the seven years since, she’s never stopped working—and not just in movies. She co-starred in such works as HATESHIP LOVESHIP, John Carney’s BEGIN AGAIN, ROMEO AND JULIET, ENDER’S GAME, THE HOMESMAN, THE KEEPING ROOM, 10,000 SAINTS, BARELY LETHAL, and she even landed a role in Taylor Swift’s “Bad Blood” video.
In the last couple of years, Steinfeld has also launched a music career, having released an EP and a few singles while putting the finishing touches on her debut album. All of which made her introduction as Emily in PITCH PERFECT 2 even more fortuitous (she’s also set to star in PITCH PERFECT 3, due for released in December 2017). But there is something about her role as the angst-ridden high school student Nadine in writer-director Kelly Fremon Craig’s feature debut THE EDGE OF SEVENTEEN that seems just about perfect for her. It may take some time to get to like the character, but Steinfeld is not perfect as the self-obsessed teen with off-kilter priorities and a forlorn teacher/confidant, played by Woody Harrelson. I love this movie, which feels like an updated (hard R-rated, mostly for language) John Hughes coming-of-age triumph.
I had a chance to sit down with Steinfeld in Chicago a couple weeks ago, and she was an open and fantastic interview. With than, please enjoy my talk with Hailee Steinfeld…
Capone: Hello.
Hailee Steinfeld: Hello there.
Capone: How are you?
HS: I’m good, thank you. And you?
Capone: Good. Watching this film as a 40-something-year-old man, it reminded me of the John Hughes stuff I grew up with. I’m sure that’s not the first time someone’s said that to you, but for someone who actually grew up watching those movies, it just felt very real and authentic, and there’s a frankness about certain subjects that is unmistakeable. I don’t know how aware you are with his films, but was that something that captivated you about the way the story was written?
HS: It absolutely did. I’m very familiar with those films and love them so much for many reasons. One being it’s so easy to connect with the characters in those movies and feel like that was an honest telling of that certain situation, or of that period of time, which was high school and growing up and being a teenager and finding your way.
I think with this movie, reading it, feeling like, thinking “Wow, this is actually what conversations sound like in the hallways of a high school these days.” It’s not overdone, and it’s not under done, and it’s not cliche. I mean, it’s cliche in the best way possible. It’s cliche because it’s real, and it’s not stereotypical. It’s just honest and real and organic. That is one of many things again that really drew me to this project.
Capone: Do you have a favorite of that era of coming-of-age stories?
HS: I really feel without THE BREAKFAST CLUB or SIXTEEN CANDLES even—that movie, I remember watching and thinking, “I hope this never happens to me.” That would probably be the one.
Capone: Tell me about about meeting with the writer/director and first being exposed to this material, and what about Nadine did you latch on to initially and love about her?
HS: I think the idea that this character goes through so much of what I’ve gone through, but I’ve never been able to express myself through any other role or through any other form of expression other than tears and arguments with my parents. I think the idea of feeling like I could tell this story honestly because I’ve been there in so many of these situations, maybe not exactly but very similarly, and the same to a certain degree.
I remember the audition process for this movie consisted of a lot of lengthy conversations with Kelly about my own personal experiences and the language and the conversation and how real it is. And she was so amazing and so open to “If this is not how you would say it, say it how you would say it.” And she put so much trust in me, which as an actor is something you dream of from your director. Again, it consisted of so many conversations of what life is really like in these certain situations.
Capone: So you did have to audition. I was wondering if this part yours when you read it the first time. What made you say, “I have to do this.”
HS: Well, because I felt like there hadn’t been anything like this in a while. Other than THE BREAKFAST CLUB, which wasn’t part of my generation. I don’t feel like I was given a film as a viewer, or my generation for that matter has been given a movie, where they can look at it and watch it and feel like they see themselves in this movie, in this character or in any character, because they’re all so real.
I had to audition several times. I think I auditioned three times, and I remember each time leaving feeling like that was such a cool experience to have as an actor. Being in a room with a director, being able to talk, being able to take your time. It’s not a matter of like “Here I go into a room with just nothing on the walls but a camera in front of me, and I get to read. And like, ‘Ok, great. Thank you so much. We’ll talk to you later.’” And I’m like, “How’d I do?” It was really a creatively fulfilling experience just at the end of an audition, and normally I walk away from those feeling “Am I cut out to do this kind of thing?” But it was a great process, and I’m glad that I had to go in there. It’s always more fun when you have to fight for it.
Capone: Did anything about the prospect of playing this character scare you in any way? To the point where you said, “Now I really have to do it because it’s making me nervous.”
HS: Sure. I guess in a way, sometimes when we really want something, we convince ourselves we can do it no matter what until we face the challenge and we’re like, “Can I actually pull it off?” But I would go in the room and would convince her that I was right, and I would do everything that I could, and I would deliver as much as I could in the right way, or what I thought was the right way.
I think even past that, we would get on set and we would face different challenges where it was like “This is what really makes me want to kill this,” because doing it justice, doing the situation justice, and doing the story for that matter, was important. Hoping that my friends my age and people my age around the world will see this movie and feel like it’s them. That’s a nerve-wracking thought, because again I could put as much of my own personal experience into this film, and it doesn’t mean anyone else experiences that same moment, right? Even though it’s a more universal just being a teenager and growing up. That’s what I was able to put into it.
Capone: One of the things I like about this character is, we like her. We empathize with her to a certain degree, but she also makes a lot of really weird mistakes and overreacts to things. There are actually some people that might leave this movie not really liking her that much, and that’s not a bad thing. Do you think it’s more important to like her, or to just understand where she’s coming from?
HS: I think understand. You don’t have to like her. It’s funny, though, because in a way she’s her own worst enemy, she’s her own mean girl, she’s her own worst critic.
Capone: No one’s picking on her, really.
HS: Right, right. Yeah, she does it herself. There are multiple times in this movie where she’s super unlikable, but I guess we can relate to that in a way because there are times where I have had experiences where I’m like “damn, if I would look back on that, I would not like how I handled that.” She calls herself out on it. She realizes it, and I think that’s where we empathize with her, and that’s where we see ourselves, whether it’s a day or a month or a couple of years of our life where we’ve experienced that or went through that.
Capone: The scenes you have with Woody are easily the best of the film. They’re just so funny. For someone my age, he’s the way we work ourselves into this story. We’re seeing it though his eyes, “Who is this crazy girl?” As an actor, what do you learn from working with him, from watching him?
HS: I don’t even know where to begin. His timing is everything. There are sometimes where whoever you’re working opposite of, you either have to work a little harder to figure out the end result of what you’re trying to get at, your objective, or other times you can just kind of ride the wave. With him it was like “Let’s just have fun.” We knew what we were getting at, we knew what we were saying, and we forgot it all and just went off. We had so much fun. Kelly at times would just let the camera roll and we would just go off and just have the best time, but I think just the way he — I guess his level of investment in every line is something that I’ll forever remember and try and always take with me.
Capone: The suicide note exchange sequence is perfection between the two of you. I think I had read somewhere that you were homeschooled for the most part, but I’m wondering are there moments in this story where you felt lucky to have dodged a bullet by not having gone to high school? And how much of your own experience were you able to pull from to flesh out this character?
HS: It takes place in high school, and it takes place over the high school years, but it’s not a high school movie. I’m 19. I was 17 not too long ago, and 18 soon after that, which is again not long ago. So I feel like I’ve gone through the growing up and being a teenager and trying to find my place in this world, let alone the smaller environment I’ve been exposed to, and I was able to really pull from so many experiences that I had when I was in school and obviously in the last couple of years of my life that I haven’t been in a traditional high school. I was able to relate to the messiness of figuring out life itself.
Capone: What do you want younger women to be thinking about when you leave this movie?
HS: The fact that it’s okay to not be perfect, and not have the answer to every question. I hope that they can watch this movie and see themselves in this character, or somewhere in this movie, and feel like they’re not alone. I am so lucky to have been able to make this movie and to have this movie for myself. I wish I’d had it a few years ago to watch anyway and to feel understood by a character like her, and I really hope that young women, and really anyone of any age, can feel that way when they see this.
Capone: I always love a great NAPOLEON DYNAMITE reference.
HS: Nice!
Capone: It’s hard to believe that movie is 12-years-old. So I’m almost not sure the math works out on Nadine knowing that movie so well. I love that moment right after you see the haircut you’re like, “Are you even up there?” That’s your Judy Blume moment.
HS: Right. Totally. It’s the present day and obviously those references have been made, so I think that through social media, and everything we’re exposed to now whether or not that movie was something we grew up with, it’s something we know about. I’m the same age as the character, and I’d seen that movie years ago and re-watched it because I didn’t remember it because it was a while ago.
Capone: The relationship with you and your mother, Kyra Sedgwick—even though the movie doesn’t put a big bullseye on it—that does see the root of the problem. The mother is living her life, and she’s like “You kids can take care of yourselves.” Talk about that relationship with the mother, because those are some of the most disturbing scenes in the movie.
HS: It’s true. I think it starts at home. I luckily don’t have anywhere near that kind of relationship with my mom. I couldn’t even imagine if that was the case, but in imagining it, in playing this character, I think that lacking that love from a mother is where it all goes downhill. I’m looking for it in this guy that doesn’t even know I exist; I’m looking for it in my friend who’s finding it in someone else; and I don’t know how to give it, let alone receive it. I think I was never taught that.
The one person I was taught anything from was my dad, and he’s not there. Not being able to find that in my mom, there were so many situations and scenes where it’s almost like she is the adult, and she doesn’t know how to be a kid, let alone an adult, and so it makes it 10 times harder trying to figure out certain things. She doesn’t know how to help anyone else, because she can’t help herself. Though she learns and figures it out, and it all comes full circle for her and she realizes that it is just a moment in time in her life that will pass, it’s not easy and I think like you said if it started there then a lot of her problems would be solved.
Capone: There’s an interesting aspect of your career that I’ve noticed, which is that you have carved out this little niche for yourself of playing these… I don’t know if there’s a generic term for it, but with TRUE GRIT and THE KEEPING ROOM and THE HOMESMEN, they’re not frontier women exactly, but they’re these hard-living, driven young women. Are you always looking for something like that to balance out the more mainstream roles?
HS: No, I would say it’s more dumb luck than anything. I think if I’m looking for anything, it’s great material with great people, and they just so happen to have that consistency and that weird connection. It’s never been an intentional like, “It’s time to do one of those movies again.” But I do feel like I’ve done the perfect balance of contemporary movies and period pieces. It’s interesting, because every time I’m on a period film I feel like “It’s time to wear normal clothes again,” and then I’ll go and make a movie like this. It’s the dead of summer, and we’re like covered up in wool. But yeah, it’s not an intentional thing. I think the intentional aspect is the material and the directors and the actors.
Capone: When do you start shooting PITCH PERFECT 3? It's supposed to come out next December, right?
HS: I know, I know. They have an end date, which means any day now. I’m just waiting along with everybody else. I haven't seen a script yet, so hopefully in the new year.
Capone: And you just got a new director too.
HS: Yes, yes. Which I’m excited about. It’ll be great, I hope.
Capone: Do you have anything planned beyond that? I know you’re coming back here to tour next month.
HS: Yeah, yeah, yeah. Exactly. So I am working on my album.
Capone:Right, you actually need to put out an album first. So far it’s just like EPs and single.
HS: Right, right, right, which I’m excited about. That’s in the works right now. PITCH PERFECT 3 will happen, and another movie.
Capone: Then you’ll have to tour for real.
HS: I know, I know.
Capone: It was great to meet you. Thank you so much. Best of luck with this.
