Hailee Steinfeld is everywhere. The 28-year-old, who has amassed 20 million Instagram followers and earned a regular spot on best-dressed lists, got engaged to her N.F.L. boyfriend, Josh Allen, in November, made a cameo in Novartis’s viral breast-cancer-awareness ad at this year’s Super Bowl, and just two weeks later, on February 26, launched Angel Margarita, a canned-cocktail company. But between the coronavirus pandemic and the 2023 SAG-AFTRA strike, the actress and singer hasn’t had a major film role in five years—until now.
Next week, she’s making her return to the big screen with Sinners, Ryan Coogler’s new film, starring Michael B. Jordan. “When you hear Ryan Coogler is writing an original story,” she says, “you do everything you possibly can to be a part of it.” A blend of a supernatural horror movie and a period piece, Sinners is set in the Jim Crow South. Jordan plays two twin brothers who return to their hometown in Mississippi only to find it overtaken by an evil force possessing the townspeople. Steinfeld plays Mary, a fearless local and one of Jordan’s love interests.
Steinfeld has already been acting for nearly two decades. Growing up with her older brother, Griffin (who is now a race-car driver), in Los Angeles, where her mother worked as an interior decorator and her father as a fitness instructor, she feels “like there was never a moment where I wasn’t allowed or able to be a kid.”
It was her choice to embark on her career at a young age. She recalls the moment, at eight years old, when she decided she wanted to become an actress, after watching her cousin, a child actor herself, in a TV commercial in her family’s living room. Steinfeld immediately ran to her parents’ office and begged to start auditioning.
Her mother encouraged her to take classes and then re-assess. Steinfeld did just that, and a year later, in 2005, she sent out headshots, taken by her mom in her backyard, to 10 talent agencies. It’s how she booked her first modeling gig, for Gap, and her first on-camera advertising, for Soda Pop Girls dolls.
Steinfeld’s breakout role came three years later, when the 13-year-old starred alongside Jeff Bridges and Matt Damon in the 2010 film True Grit. After auditioning alongside more than 15,000 child actors, the Coen brothers, who directed the film, chose Steinfeld to portray Mattie Ross, a teen set on avenging her father’s murder.
Other major roles quickly followed. Steinfeld acted alongside Mark Ruffalo and Keira Knightley in the 2013 indie film Begin Again. In 2015, she stepped into the part of an a cappella–loving college student in Pitch Perfect 2, with Anna Kendrick and Elizabeth Banks—a role she reprised two years later in Pitch Perfect 3. Steinfeld made her TV debut in 2019, starring as the titular character in the Apple TV+ series Dickinson.
But as Steinfeld rose to fame, she also grew as a person. “I’m able to look at the roles that I’ve played and tell you how they’ve each represented me accurately at that point in my life,” she says. Sinners reinforces the connection between Steinfeld’s life and career. “I was so moved by where this woman is at,” she says of her character, Mary. “She has this power that she is completely aware of, and she knows how to move through the world in a way that she could only have figured out with what she’s gone through.”
It’s a role, she believes, she was only now prepared to take on, saying, “I had a confidence that only comes with seat time.” Steinfeld’s recent engagement to Allen marks a new chapter in her life, and a wave of additional publicity. Despite her growing self-confidence, she finds it difficult to control her image, especially considering her entrance into the public eye amid the rise of social media.
“It’s amazing to be able to be in control of the narrative as much as you can, but a lot of times you’re not,” she says. While she routinely posts on Instagram, she’s also launched a weekly newsletter, Beau Society, as a way to interact with her fans. Varying in format and length, the newsletter, which she’s been writing for almost a year now, answers questions from fans and shares anecdotes on topics from her dogs to her family, to her career. Beau Society gives her more room for authenticity. “I’ve always struggled with the connection part of [social media],” she explains. “It’s hard to cut through the noise.”
Busy as ever, Steinfeld admits, “There’s never a moment where I don’t have a hundred unanswered questions in my brain.” But the actress refuses to let uncertainty slow her down. If anything, she adds, “I’m only just beginning.”
Sinners opens in theaters April 18
Jeanne Malle is an Associate Editor at Air Mail