Hailee Steinfeld is a brilliant actor and talented musical artist. She blew up with her turn in the Coen Brothers’ remake of the John Wayne-starring True Grit. She was lauded for her performance in the film, which she gave when she was only 14. Since then, she has taken on a wide variety of interesting roles — some of which have utilized her singing ability, others which rely on her acting alone. She joined the massively popular, female-driven acapella music film series Pitch Perfect in the sequels Pitch Perfect 2 and Pitch Perfect 3 to some acclaim. She also played Mark Ruffalo’s character’s musically-inclined teenage daughter in John Carney’s musical Begin Again. She’s also played a key role in the science fiction film based on the young adult novel Ender’s Game as well as the star of the coming-of-age film The Edge of Seventeen. She has also dipped her toe into the realm of animated voice work with the English translation of the Studio Ghibli film When Marnie Was There as well as the computer-animated film Spider-Man: Into the Spiderverse. As her star continues to rise — with projects like the Transformers franchise prequel film Bumblebee and the upcoming television series Dickenson where she plays the eponymous poet — her fans have much to look forward to.
True Grit (2010)
In the Coen Brothers’ remake of the western drama True Grit, Steinfeld plays Mattie Ross, a teenager whose father is killed by an outlaw named Tom Chaney (Josh Brolin). To track him down, she hires a drunkard U.S. Marshal named “Rooster” Cogburn (Jeff Bridges), and the duo set out to find him — with a Texas Ranger named LaBoeuf (Matt Damon) who is also looking to slap some cuffs on Chaney. It is easily Steinfeld’s best film — as well as one of the Coens’ many great pieces.
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The Edge of Seventeen (2016)
In The Edge of Seventeen, Steinfeld plays angsty high schooler Nadine. The inevitable struggles of her life as an adolescent are made exponentially worse when her best friend and brother begin dating. The film was lauded by critics for its grounded honesty — as was Steinfeld’s performance.
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3 Days to Kill (2014)
In 3 Days to Kill, a terminally ill CIA agent (Kevin Costner) takes on the prototypical “one last job” in return for a new drug that could cure his illness. Meanwhile, he also hopes to reconnect with his daughter (Steinfeld) and her mother, who he pushed away because of the dangerous nature of his career. It received praise from critics for its surprising heart.
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Ender’s Game (2013)
Ender’s Game is an adaptation of Orson Scott Card’s ubiquitous young adult science fiction novel of the same name. Children are trained from a young age to prepare for battle with an alien species from Mars. Steinfeld plays Petra Arkanian, one of the young cadets. She takes the eponymous gifted student Ender Wiggin (Asa Butterfield) under her wing and shows him the ropes. The film also stars the talented Harrison Ford and Viola Davis as overseers of the program.
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Ten Thousand Saints (2015)
In the period drama Ten Thousand Saints, which is set in the 1980s, a teenager (Asa Butterfield) moves to New York City to reconnect with his father (Ethan Hawke). He meets his father’s girlfriend (Emily Mortimer)’s daughter (Steinfeld), who he develops feelings for. It is a sometimes-dark film but ultimately satisfying.
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