Month: November 2016

“I’m literally the most awkward person ever,” Hailee Steinfeld admits. But she doesn’t seem that awkward. Today she’s sitting on a couch at the Four Seasons in Beverly Hills, about to start a full day of press for her latest film The Edge of Seventeen (out on November 18). It’s a genuine, layered, coming-of-age film about Nadine, a high school teen who doesn’t quite fit in.

She does have at least one advantage over the freaked-out Nadine. “I’m a little better at masking it than my character is,” the 19-year-old actress says. Plus, unlike her Edge of Seventeen character, Steinfeld didn’t have to forlornly traverse high-school hallways, because she was home-schooled after sixth grade. Her formative years were spent on the sets of movies like True Grit, Begin Again, Romeo & Juliet, and Ender’s Game. But neither does she think she got off scot-free just because she skipped the traditional high school experience: “That’s just growing up….the whole growing-up part, I think we all got.”

Her aversion to high-school trappings even extended to her graduation; she could have attended a graduation with other home-schooled kids, but Steinfeld felt too weird about it. “I don’t like social gatherings like that, so I begged my parents and my teacher to let me skip out on it,” she says. In retrospect, Steinfeld thinks she “probably would have liked to have the photo.” But still, there was no way she was going to get involved with all the traditional pageantry: “The whole cap and gown thing stresses me out. I was not about it.”

After doing Pitch Perfect 2 last year, in which Steinfeld played a college freshman, and after releasing her debut EP Haiz in November of 2015, the actress felt ready to move away from those uncomfortable high-school years. So when she was approached about The Edge of Seventeen, Steinfeld initially resisted.

“I was like, ‘Okay, I’m going to be 20 in a couple years, I don’t really want to be playing teenagers anymore,'” she explains. “Even though I was a teenager, and was going to be for a couple more years. Then, she took a look at the script. “I was pleasantly surprised,” she says. “I realized it doesn’t get more complex than this story and this character.”

In fact, taking on the role of outsider Nadine, who struggles with the news that her best friend Krista (Haley Lu Richardson) is dating her seemingly perfect brother (Blake Jenner), taught Steinfeld more than she was expecting. For one thing, she got to unleash all that pent-up high school angst in Nadine’s shoes. Continue reading “Is Hailee Steinfeld Really the Most Awkward Person Ever?”

Steinfeld, who turns 20 on Dec. 11, spoke about playing Nadine, the flawed but likable protagonist, and how she tapped into her own experience as a home-schooled student to portray a girl who is feeling isolated and different.

How do you think your own personal experience of high school helped inform you to play Nadine? What was it like for you in school?
I was actually home-schooled through high school, so I think the not being in high school worked to my advantage (in this role). Feeling that real sense of alienation of being in the hallways of a high school, not really knowing where to look, I guess. What resonated with me more than anything was the growing up aspect; the daily questioning yourself of, “Who am I? What am I good at? What is my place on this earth? How and what do I do to fit in? Do I even want to fit in?” Those questions, I’ve asked myself daily for years. I didn’t feel in any way removed because I didn’t have a traditional high school experience. This character, for me, was a place that I could express what I felt as a person in the last few years of my life.

What was your reaction when you first read the script?
It didn’t occur to me that it was too much or not enough. It was just the perfect amount. It’s so perfectly captures everything about being a 17-year-old girl, including the language.

How much fun was it in your classroom scenes with Woody Harrelson, who plays your exasperated teacher? Was it hard to get through without cracking up?
Oh my gosh, they owe me an entire blooper reel of everything with Woody and me. I have never seen a human face turn so red before, just desperately trying to hold it in. There were so many (funny) moments with every person in this movie. I had the hardest time holding back laughter.

How did you like playing your character Nadine as a 13-year-old with a bad haircut?
That was weird. Obviously, the look we were trying to achieve was Pedro from “Napoleon Dynamite.” When I was fitting the wig, I wasn’t in front of a mirror so the first time I saw myself with the wig my heart kind of broke a little bit. I called my mom and asked if she still loved me. (She laughs.) It had a lot to do with helping me feel that young and I think we all have moments, regardless of how old we are of feeling like a little kid. She’s looking for love or attention from her parents, friends or whoever, and is confused by the fact that she can’t find it. So being in that sort of mind set of just feeling small and you feel young and you feel like you don’t really know anything was interesting. It was a weird thing, obviously, because here I am going on 20, but then sometimes I feel like I’m 13. Continue reading “Hailee Steinfeld Gets Awkward in ‘Edge of Seventeen’”

Hailee Steinfeld’s eyes are focused on her phone as she scrolls through her calendar during a break on set for her FASHION cover shoot. She has an overwhelming number of events and appointments, one of which is heading to the studio to record her debut disc. “It’s a little intense,” she says, looking at her schedule, which includes premieres, TV interviews and appearances to support her latest film, The Edge of Seventeen. “I’ve got to be careful. Everything I do has an effect.”

With two careers on the go, it’s wise for the 19-year-old to be particular about how, and with whom, she spends her time. “It’s a good kind of busy to be right now, but it’s about to get crazzzy,” she says, looking at the next few weeks ahead, which include flying to Paris for Valentino’s Spring 2017 fashion show, then to London and Tokyo for a few public appearances and finally to L.A. to prepare for her part in Pitch Perfect 3. Steinfeld credits the role in the film series with giving her the confidence she needed to enter the pop-music scene. It helped that her character, a crass a cappella singer named Emily who was introduced in Pitch Perfect 2, has Anna Kendrick (who plays Beca) as her singing partner. For a while, most people thought that Steinfeld’s singing was just a side hustle—that is until she hit the charts with three major hits: “Love Myself,” “Rock Bottom” (featuring funk-pop band DNCE) and “Starving” (featuring Grey and Zedd).

Even before Pitch Perfect, Steinfeld used music and created playlists to help prepare for parts. At 14, she was even granted a lifetime membership to Taylor Swift’s famous squad, which includes other pop stars like Selena Gomez, Zendaya, Lorde and Haim. “Banding together—whether it’s a group of women or a group of men or both—is awesome,” she says. Steinfeld also developed a meaningful relationship with Shawn Mendes after the pair recorded an acoustic version of his hit “Stitches.” “I remember meeting him three years ago when I was just dipping my toes into the whole music thing and he inspired me to stay on,” she says. “He’s so kind, [and] even then, I knew he was going to be a big star.”

In terms of what to expect from her first album, Steinfeld wants it to be a surprise for fans. She does confirm, however, that the lyrics aren’t based on any of her own romantic relationships. “Bad boyfriends make for great songs,” she says. “Luckily, I’ve never really had a bad boyfriend, but I have watched friends go through it all.” Another source of creative inspo is her older brother, Griffin. “He’s a couple of steps ahead of me,” she says. “So, because of him, I’m able to open up my mind.” Continue reading “FASHION Magazine Winter 2017 Cover: Hailee Steinfeld”