To say this past week has been a busy one for Oscar-nominee Hailee Steinfeld would be an understatement. On top of releasing a new track with Zedd and seeing the trailer debut of her coming-of-age feature-length film Edge of Seventeen, she’s currently traveling the U.S. as a supporting act for Meghan Trainor’s The Untouchable Tour. At the time of our call, she’s on a tour bus on the way to Vegas.
“I think taking things day by day is really how I tend to handle everything because it gets to be very overwhelming and it’s easy to just say, ‘I need a break.’” But Steinfeld has shows no signs of breaking. Following her run of shows with Trainor, it’s back to releasing more music—most likely another EP, following 2015’s Haiz. “When I get back from tour at the end of the summer I will be back in the studio finishing everything up and getting it out for everybody to hear.”
Steinfeld has started shaping a name for herself in music by making radio-friendly anthems like self-love track “Love Myself,” which went platinum in the U.S., and most recently, “Starving” featuring Zedd and Grey. To top it off, the singer has posted more than one Instagram of her working with producer BloodPop, whose collaborators include Justin Bieber, Fifth Harmony, Tinashe, CL, Pia Mia, and more. Given the track record of both, the output of their sessions is sure to be fire.
When not making sounds that ignite the dance floor, Steinfeld is filling up her schedule learning lines for films. Also released this week was the trailer to Edge of Seventeen, which sees the actress take on an emotionally intense and sardonically funny role of a teen struggling to fit in in high school. It’s a well-rounded role that’s likely more taxing than her spot as new girl Emily in the fun family-favorite comedy Pitch Perfect 2.
On the film, she says, “I think sometimes it’s hard to accomplish telling a very honest story and having every element in there from romance to heartbreak, you know?” For Steinfeld, an authentic portrayal of her character, Nadine Byrd, is on the forefront of her mind. “Sometimes I feel like people think that I didn’t necessarily go through the same experience that [Nadine] did just because I wasn’t in a public or a private high school. I was home-schooled. It was really nice playing a character where I could express so many of those feelings that I have felt in so many of these experiences that I have gone through in just a different world.”
What the future holds for the 19-year-old isn’t even yet on her radar, though one could easily imagine big things. “It’s so crazy because I’ve been living so in the moment for a long time that it’s hard to look so far into the future because anything can change at any moment. But I’d love to release a full-length album and headline my own tour, and work on another movie, absolutely.”