Teen actor grounded by music
Hailee Steinfeld’s star rises higher as she plays a loner in The Edge of Seventeen
TORONTO — Between takes on the set of the new coming-of-age comedy The Edge of Seventeen, acting/singing sensation Hailee Steinfeld could often be found with her earbuds in, listening to music to get into character.
“It’s the only thing I feel that keeps me grounded,” the 19-yearold Los Angeles native said in an interview at the Toronto International Film Festival, where The Edge of Seventeen had the closingnight slot and charmed critics.
“It’s amazing seeing how they coincide. As an actor, music is so a part of me and my process and my preparation.”
Since earning an Oscar nomination at just 14 for portraying heroine Mattie Ross in True Grit, Steinfeld’s star has risen both onscreen and onstage, with films including Pitch Perfect 2 and her 2015 debut EP Haiz.
If that wasn’t enough to prove her popularity she’s also a member of Taylor Swift’s influential squad of friends and appears in her Bad Blood music video.
Being a part of the in-crowd is not in the cards for her character in The Edge of Seventeen, however. Steinfeld stars as Nadine, a self-absorbed loner teen who gets upset when her only friend (played by Haley Lu Richardson) starts dating her older brother (played by Blake Jenner).
Woody Harrelson plays a teacher Nadine turns to for guidance, while Kyra Sedgwick plays her widowed mother.
Kelly Fremon Craig wrote and made her feature directorial debut on the story, which is drawing comparisons to the seminal John Hughes teen films of the 1980s.
“We never ever saw it as a teen film, we never saw it as a genre film,” said Fremon Craig. “It was always a film about Nadine, about this person and what she’s going through and what she learns about herself.
“So I think it was really just about trying to capture this character and this story and this age as honestly as possible.”
Fremon Craig gave Steinfeld freedom to help shape Nadine, which called for a fine balance of comedy and angst.
“So much of this character is Hailee, is what Hailee brought,” said Fremon Craig. “It was so wild to watch her because as she would step into this character the whole physicality would change.”
Steinfeld admits it was exhausting. “I’ve had feelings before as an actor where there’s that one scene that I remember distinctly from the first time I read it, like, ’That’s going to be a rough day,”’ said Steinfeld.
“Those scenes were almost every day and I learned so much of using my own anxiety and using my stress and tiredness and putting it into this character.”
She’s also putting such feelings into her songwriting.
“I feel like my imagination is so vast because of my acting,” she said.
“Playing a role like Nadine where I’ve experienced so much of what she’s gone through and I can relate on a spiritual level, there are still things she says and does that I would never have the guts to do and I can write about that as a songwriter.”