Hailee Steinfeld names her favourite role of her career: “That was a movie I needed”
Hailee Steinfeld earned her first Oscar nomination at 14 for her role as Maggie, a feisty teenager seeking revenge for her father’s death in the 2010 Coen brothers adaptation of the gritty western, True Grit.
Naturally, the nomination catapulted her into the limelight, displaying her potential as a hopeful actor with sophisticated depth and range. Six years later, Steinfeld also won critical acclaim in her coming-out role as Nadine, a socially awkward and sensitive outsider navigating high school, in The Edge of Seventeen, a beloved hidden gem and sleepover club classic.
The directorial debut of Are You There God? It’s Me, Margaret’s Kelly Fremon Craig saw Steinfeld star alongside Woody Harrelson and Kyra Sedgwick, alongside Haley Lu Richardson, playing her best friend Krista, who starts dating Nadine’s older brother.
Nadine’s relationship with her depressive and cynical high school teacher, played by Harrelson, is particularly special, and the film was praised for its accurate and charming exploration of the trials and tribulations of being a teenage girl in America.
Speaking to Collider, Steinfeld opened up about what the film meant for her and her acting career, revealing how close The Edge of Seventeen was to her heart. “The Edge of Seventeen was a movie that meant so much to me—still means so much to me—but that was a movie I needed,” she reflected.
The actor has since leaned into the blockbuster sphere, traversing the Marvel universe with Hawkeye, Spiderman, and most recently Avengers, as well as the world of romcoms with films like Pitch Perfect, where she plays legacy a cappella star Emily Junk, and Barely Lethal.
That was until she auditioned for the part of Ryan Coogler’s vampire slayer sonic-action epic, Sinners, where she played the role of Maggie, the seductive white-passing past lover of Stack, one half of the Smokestack twins—both played impeccably by Michael B Jordan—who return to their Mississippi hometown to set up a juke joint, only to have an army of blood-thirsty vampires show up at their door.
It was a refreshing role for Steinfeld, whose filmography was beginning to be sidelined towards cringey Netflix busts and cheque-guzzling action movies. She doesn’t have a problem with this, however, as the actor insists she loves all the movies she has acted in, telling Collider she was “so grateful” to be a part of the projects she’d been a part of.
“I feel like they each have represented me in a time in my life and have pushed me to where I am now, and to wherever the heck I’ll go,” she relayed.
At only 28, Steinfeld’s career is just getting started, and the actor shows no signs of slowing down. In the spirit of sentimentality, the actor is returning to the Marvel universe in Avengers: Doomsday, which is due to be released in December 2026, where she’ll star alongside Vanessa Kirby, Pedro Pascal, Florence Pugh, and Robert Downey Jr.
