Just because she's gone and become a pop star, doesn't mean Hailee Steinfeld, the actress who made her name in Oscar-winning True Grit when she was just 14, is putting acting on the back burner.
When we spoke to her this week, she was mid-shoot in Vancouver, already working on a new film, and super-confused about the time...
Hi, Hailee, how are you?
I’m good, thank you! I’m on set in Vancouver. We’re working very weird weeks. I think it’s Monday. Oh, I don’t even know.
Sounds like things are pretty crazy. I love your EP. What do you imagine when you think about people listening to it?
I feel like half of it is empowering and strong and sassy and the other two songs are more vulnerable. I don’t know. I hope it will affect people in different ways. When I put Love Myself out as my first single I had no idea what to expect. It’ll be exciting to see!
I like to sing Love Myself to myself in the mirror. Kind of like I used to with Christina Aguilera’s Fighter when I was 14 and emotional.
Amazing!
What’s your song for doing that?
Oh, wow. I don’t know if I have one. It’s Love Myself now, though!
An excellent choice. The leather culottes you wear in the video though. Talk to me. How sweaty and impractical are they for daily wear?
Oh, God. I mean, on a scale of 1-10 in terms of how bearable they are, I’d say like five and a half.
So, not recommended for daily life, then
Yeah I prefer something easier to move in, but they’re just that great I have actually worn them outside of the video because I love them so much. I don’t wear anything that’s all that practical any more.
Well that’s the good thing about being a pop star now, you get to wear bonkers outfits and no one can say anything
Absolutely! That’s my favourite part – being able to create a look that matches the sound and matches my personality.
Is it weird going from being an actor to playing a pop star?
Yeah I’m used to telling someone else’s story but with this music I’m telling my own. It’s equally terrifying as it is satisfying and rewarding.
Did being mates with Taylor Swift make it more scary? I think if I went out with her onstage in front of that many people I’d run back offstage and never go back.
Oh my gosh, are you kidding me?! That was like, definitely a moment of WOW. I was watching her before thinking, ‘I’m gonna be up there with the coolest girl in the world in a matter of minutes’. It was surreal to be up there and see being going as crazy as they were for someone I can call a friend just incredibly special.
Were you not absolutely bloody terrified you were going to fall over?
Oh I definitely almost slipped. In fact I may have, because there was like a ramp that I was not aware of. But thank God for Gigi – she held on to me. I was like ‘just don’t go down without me. If I’m going down – you’re coming with me’.
Great life hack; feeling unsteady in heels? Find Gigi Hadid for support
Yeah she’s got some experience in that area.
So when you were in Pitch Perfect 2 how long did it take before you stopped singing all the songs in your head all day and all night?
Oh my gosh. It’s so funny, Brittany Snow – AKA DJ Snow - made us a playlist at the end of the movie of all the songs that we would not stop singing and recently I opened my computer and for whatever reason it was freaking out on me and started playing this playlist and it all came back.
Was there one song in particular?
Fancy was the one song that like, they would call ‘cut’ and all of us would just start singing it consciously and unconsciously.
I imagine you dreaming these songs in your head when you went to sleep
Yeah no, that was what happened.
And in terms of Pitch Perfect 3… what’s going ON?
I unfortunately know nothing about when we’re starting. Hopefully soon.
Hey, hey Hailee. If we came to visit you at your house (we’re not just going to show up, I promise) where would you take us?
Okay, so if you came to visit me I would take you to my favourite restaurant in Malibu called Café Habana and then maybe take you for a walk on the beach!
Sounds like a dream. See you there.
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Picture: Hailee Steinfeld/Instagram
This article originally appeared on The Debrief.