A few weeks ago, I sat down with Steinfeld in a suite at the Peninsula Hotel to talk about the film, which opens November 18, as well as her forthcoming full-length studio album.
First of all, I really enjoyed this movie.
Thank you!
One of the reasons why—and also why I think the film is receiving so many positive reviews—is that your character is not a stereotypical movie nerd. She’s uncool in the way that most high school girls are uncool, in that she lingers on the outside of social circles and wonders what she’s doing wrong. Was that something that you and the writer-director, Kelly Fremon Craig, discussed before filming began?
Those conversations really came into play when we started to go through wardrobe and hair and makeup, and creating the look of this character from zero. Off the bat, it never really felt like a stereotypical character. During the auditioning process, Kelly and I had real conversations about my experiences in high school and Kelly’s experiences in high school and experiences that she had talked to other high school students about.
When we got into wardrobe, we wanted to create a look that was obviously different. The character is called out onscreen for her not-so-great style. But we wanted it to still be aspirational in a way. She has her own sense of style, and whatever that may be—it’s not bad, it’s not great, but it’s her own thing. It’s what she feels good in, and that’s the most important thing and the bottom line. So those conversations happened as we were trying to create somebody who was different but unique and special.
Because there’s nothing wrong with the way she dresses. It’s just not what the “cool girls” are wearing.
Exactly.
I’m assuming you didn’t have a traditional high school experience. How do you think you would have fared in a traditional high school setting?
I was in a brick-and-mortar school until sixth grade and home-schooled throughout high school, mainly because I don’t think I would have been able to survive in high school [laughs]. I think I would have handled it pretty similarly to Nadine: just trying to figure it out day by day and trying to make the best decisions. I don’t know. I don’t know how I would have done it, to be honest. Up until sixth grade, I wasn’t thriving socially, and it wasn’t an environment I wanted or saw myself being in for any longer than I already had. So I don’t know what I would have done in high school, because it only gets harder.
It does. But that’s so prevalent too, that feeling of social awkwardness in high school. And that feeling is often exacerbated by having a “cool” older sibling, as Nadine does.
You have an older brother in real life. Did you draw from that relationship to create the brother-sister dynamic onscreen?
In ways, yes, absolutely. It helps already having one and knowing what it could be like if your best friend started dating him, and they would have their own thing and I would feel very left out of that circle. I think having a brother who is very good-looking and did go through high school and had a social life and went to parties and was on the football team—like, standing back and watching that—definitely helped, walking into this film and knowing that I had this preexisting experience. That I had a brother who was this, that, and the other, and I wasn’t. Luckily and thankfully, my brother and I don’t have nearly as much hatred for each other as I feel Nadine has for her brother. Continue reading “A Q&A with Hailee Steinfeld, who stands on The Edge of Seventeen”
