Certain actors instantly take hold of you. They have ‘it,’ an intangible, illusory quality that commands your attention. It might be difficult to articulate, but you can feel it in your gut, and a star is born.
Several actors have had that effect on me. Michael Fassbender in X-Men: First Class, Taron Egerton in Kingsman: A Secret Service and Tom Holland in The Impossible come to mind.
But one name stands out to me more than most, Hailee Steinfeld.
For True Grit, the Coen brothers auditioned 15,000 girls between the ages of 12 and 17 to find their Mattie Ross, the lead of a film starring Jeff Bridges, Matt Damon and Josh Brolin.
13-year-old Steinfeld won the part and a year later, also won an Oscar nomination.
Her ability as a performer at such a tender age is indicative of her raw talent, but also the unseen efforts that go into crafting such an authentic performance.
Smart, sassy and resourceful, Mattie Ross knows what she wants, and knows how to get it.
Steinfeld’s performance is a gem, but there was one particular moment that stands out above the rest – the ‘Horse Trading’ sequence.
Throughout the film, Steinfeld chews through the Coens’ verbose yet delicious dialogue with a consummate ease that would make seasoned actors blush, and nowhere is that more palpable than in the aforementioned sequence.
From the outside looking in, the task that Steinfeld faced was daunting. A Coen brothers film, starring Jeff Bridges in an already iconic role. You’ve got Damon and Brolin, two of the finest of their generation, backing up El Duderino.
You’re 13. And you’re in the lead.
And Steinfeld nailed it. And you just knew that there’s something about her; an ‘X’ factor. Don’t take it from me, take it from Damon himself:
I saw the notes they were giving her, and they were some pretty complex adjustments. And we’d do the scene again, and she’d just nail it.
I remember looking up at Roger Deakins and saying: ‘Is she doing this stuff every day? Is she that good?’ And he just nodded to me and said, ‘She’s that good.’
Since then, while Steinfeld hasn’t quite reached the levels of acting superstardom of a Jennifer Lawrence or Margot Robbie, she’s consistently proven to be a versatile actor who chooses interesting parts and projects.
The most fascinating of them being The Edge of Seventeen, one of the finest and sharpest coming-of-age films in recent memory.
Here, Steinfeld is tasked with shouldering the film, and she does so with panache. Her work in the film is engaging, nuanced and charming.
Then there’s her venture into more popular fare: Begin Again, Pitch Perfect, Into The Spiderverse, and Bumblebee
All of that, and she’s only 23. There’s a lot more to come from Hailee Steinfeld, the actor.
She's that good.
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