The what-if movie Hailee Steinfeld hates being reminded of: “Don’t bring that up!”
Throughout the history of cinema, there have been countless what-ifs and missed opportunities.
Leonardo DiCaprio could’ve been Patrick Bateman in American Psycho, Will Smith could’ve been Neo in The Matrix, all of which makes you think what these actors’ careers would look like if things had worked out differently.
In some cases, the knock-on effect could actually be pretty massive, but you can never really be too sure how things will work out, so it’s best not to look back in regret over missed opportunities and rather see them as examples of the universe working in your favour, which is how Hailee Steinfeld, who recently starred in the Oscar-nominated hit Sinners, consoled herself when she lost out on a major role earlier in her career.
She rose to prominence as the teenage star of 2010’s True Grit, and has since appeared in the Pitch Perfect franchise, lent her voice to the animated Spider-Verse series, and even played Emily Dickinson, but things might have looked different for the actor if she’d won the role of Katniss Everdeen, the lead of The Hunger Games franchise, a dystopian Battle Royale-esque series that had teenagers in a chokehold during the 2010s.
Based on Suzanne Collins’ books, the first movie came a few years after Twilight, arguably becoming the next huge teen-oriented franchise following the wizard and subsequent vampire craze. There was something grittier about The Hunger Games, though, with its premise centring around elites who force children from varying class districts to compete to the death in the name of entertainment.
There can only be one winner, but when Katniss volunteers as tribute to spare her younger sister, the whole event is thrown into a state of instability, with her and the last remaining teen, Peeta, refusing to kill one another, instead deciding to both eat poisonous berries to prevent a winner from emerging. Of course, Katniss survives the film, leading to several sequels in which she rises to power as a rebel force.
Jennifer Lawrence got her big break by playing this mammoth role, but Steinfeld was actually in the running to play her, and jokingly exclaimed, “Don’t bring that up!” when asked about the role by The Independent. Many fans thought she would be right for the role, for after all, she was closer in age to the 16-year-old Katniss compared to Lawrence, who was 21 at the time, but then, the former might have been a little too young, especially considering that Katniss is noted for possessing a maturity beyond her years.
“I truly believe everything happens for a reason. There are so many parts that I wanted or didn’t get,” the actor explained, “But I think, weirdly, it’s the same feeling of having missed every high school dance and prom, and yet I somehow found my way to the Met Gala. I feel like I’ve made up for it.”
So, she might not have led one of Hollywood’s biggest teen franchises, but she has hardly been deprived of opportunities, and while Lawrence played Katniss perfectly, Steinfeld balanced acting with a career as a pop star, so she hasn’t exactly missed out, just honed a different skill meanwhile.
