FOR Hailee Steinfeld, the sky is the limit.
The 14-year-old part Filipino actress from Thousand Oaks star is rising; bursting out of the Hollywood scene after her stand out role in the Coen Brothers’ Western adaptation of the movie True Grit.
Several Hollywood pundits and publications have lauded her performance. Many expect her to be nominated for an Oscar as either in the supporting or leading actress category.
She’s already received Best Actress nomination for the 2011 British Academy of Film and Television Arts (BAFTAs) and a Screen Actors Guild Award nomination for best supporting actress.
Time critic Richard Corliss listed Steinfeld’s performance as one of his Top 10 of the year.
“Billed a demeaning seventh in the credits behind veteran scene stealers Jeff Bridges, Matt Damon, Josh Brolin and Barry Pepper, Hailee Steinfeld easily dominates the Coens’ faithful adaptation of the Charles Portis novel… She delivers the orotund dialogue as if it were the easiest vernacular, stares down bad guys, wins hearts. That’s a true gift,” he wrote.
Despite the Oscar buzz, accolades and all the hype surrounding her, Hailee sees herself as a regular teen-aged girl.
“I’m a normal girl. I get in trouble for texting too much and using the computer too late—all kinds of stuff like that,” Steinfeld recently told People at the 16th annual Critics’ Choice Movie Awards.
On the red carpet at a major awards show, she confessed to People: “This is so new to me...This is the beginning of it all and this is really exciting for me. I’m really honored to be a part of it.”
Born in Tarzana, Steinfeld was raised in Thousand Oaks, about 40 miles northwest of Los Angeles.
According to the Ventura Star, Steinfeld began acting at the age of 8 after watching a friend perform in a school play.
Her parents told the Ventura Star that before investing in acting classes for their young daughter, they wanted to make sure she was serious.
“I think she found her passion,” mom Cheri Steinfeld said. “She enjoyed it, and never said she wanted to quit.”
Steinfeld began training at the Cynthia Bain’s Young Actor Studio in Studio City shortly thereafter. She started her career in commercial, student films and bit TV roles before beating out 15,000 girls to play Mattie, a young girl looking to avenge her father’s murder in True Grit.
“It’s like winning the lottery,” she said in several interviews.
In an interview with CBS’ Early Show, Hailee said that she “loved the material, the role itself, and the film overall, the story.”
“And it was the first time going in reading for this that I could say to myself, I was 110 percent prepared and ready to go and show that,” she added.
True Grit is expected to win several awards this Hollywood award season. It has received 11 Critics’ Choice Movie Awards and has been nominated in a category by every major film organization, including the Writer’s Guild of America (Adapted Screenplay), Producers Guild of America (Outstanding Producer), AFI (Top 10 Movies of the Year), and several others.
Steinfeld has received 16 nominations (so far) including SAG’s Best Supporting Actress. She’s already won accolades from the 2010 Online Film Critics Society Awards (Best Supporting Actress), Critics Choice Awards (Best Young Actress), and Toronto Film Critics Association (Best Supporting Actress), among others.
With so many accolades for Hailee, it’s difficult for anyone not to be overwhelmed. But Hailee said she’s lucky to have her parents and her brother to keep her grounded.
(www.asianjournal.com)
(LA Midweek Jan 19-21, 2011 MDWK pg.2)
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