Tag Archives: Hailee Steinfeld

Of course, with “True Grit” being a Coen brothers film, Hailee Steineld’s work as Mattie Ross — and the entire film — contains more than a few dark laughs. I asked Steinfeld if she expected the film to have as much dark laughter in it as it did. “Actually, some of the stuff, we could not get through without laughing, which was fun,” she said. “We’re so pleased that the audience gets that response as well, because it was as funny doing it as it was on-screen. The scene between LaBoeuf (Matt Damon) and Mattie in the bedroom, I could not get through that without laughing. It was the funniest thing. I love the fact that not only is it a Western and drama, it’s got some comedy in it, so it’s great.”

Steinfeld may not have known exactly what to expect from a Western, because, frankly, she hadn’t see many of them. With her casting, that changed. “When I first heard about ‘True Grit,’ I watched the original,” she said. “Just this past year, I’ve been introduced to the genre of a Western. It’s funny. It’s something we don’t have a lot of today, and I think it’d be great to have them back. It’s fun. I think with ‘True Grit,’ what’s so refreshing about it is the fact that not only is it a Western — it has the guns and the horses and the cowboys — but it’s really about the relationships.”

(Later, in the press conference, Steinfeld casually established with co-star Josh Brolin just how quickly the cast had to get into the film’s darker, dangerous Western mood: “Like, 15 minutes after I met you for the first time, we were rehearsing … it was, you were, like, on top of me with a knife to my neck, so it was kind of interesting.” Brolin, for his part, praised his co-star: “She’s so precocious and amazing and present and just kind of went with it. I think it was more nerve-racking for me than it was for her. She’s very comfortable in her own skin, you know?” For Brolin, the biggest trick about working with Steinfeld was watching his four-letter words, as she profited from the on-set swear jar: “Yeah, she made about $100,000. …We really searched a lot in rehearsal for character and all that, but she had already had it; she was the one person who had it down before the rest of us really started.”)

I also asked Steinfeld if it ever really kicked in that her first big-screen acting job was the lead role in a film directed by two of the field’s biggest talents — and if she was worried about making sure her next film wasn’t a horrible letdown. “That’s definitely something that we’re concerned about, (and) making sure whatever is the next thing is the right choice,” she said. “I’m so, as you can imagine, so honored and so blessed to have been given this opportunity. I’m so proud of it, really, and so proud to be a part of such an amazing cast. I feel like when I got the call, it hit me then, but then when I saw the film … it’s so surreal. It’s a lot.”

And while some are talking about Steinfeld as an awards-season contender for Oscar glory, her interest in the season’s films is as a viewer, not as a competitor: I asked her which film she most wanted to see, and her answer suggests that the precocious actress may need to take along a guardian to the movies: ‘Black Swan.’ I saw the trailer, and I’ve watched it so many times and it never gets old. It looks so intense. I’m really excited for that.”

–From my article at The Rundown