When Hailee Steinfeld first heard from her agent about a new project with an original story from the director Ryan Coogler, she was intrigued. Working with the filmmaker behind the “Black Panther” and “Creed” films would be major, of course, but her credits are filled with other major collaborations. The list includes her feature debut in the Coen brothers’ 2010 western, “True Grit”; a starring role opposite Woody Harrelson in the coming-of-age drama “The Edge of Seventeen”; and work as the archer Kate Bishop in the Marvel Cinematic Universe and the voice of Gwen Stacy in the “Spider-Verse” films.
But to Steinfeld this was still the Ryan Coogler, and one of his own collaborators, the actor Daniel Kaluuya, had put it to her like this: “If you ever get the opportunity to work with Ryan, do not walk, run.”
Of course, the new project was “Sinners,” ostensibly a vampire tale set in the Jim Crow South but more deeply an exploration of race and American history through the lens of blues music. Steinfeld, 29, plays Mary, a former love interest of Stack, one of the Smokestack twins (both played by Michael B. Jordan), in a performance that reviewers have praised as “a revelation” (The Guardian) and “never better” (Slate). She is among the many strong-willed characters Steinfeld is known for lending a sense of humanity. But inhabiting Mary, a mixed-race woman who passes for white, also asked Steinfeld to reflect on her own heritage. She specifically thought of her grandfather, who was Filipino and Black.
“With Mary, I feel like I’ve been on the doorstep of this for a long time and this character is what pushed me to sort of truly live in myself,” she said during a call in December.
Steinfeld spoke more about her family history as well as the process of auditioning and why her role in “Sinners” came along at the right time. These are edited excerpts from the conversation.
You’ve been in several high-profile roles at this point. Does the reaction to “Sinners” feel different?
I guess it’s easy to watch a movie like this, be taken along for the ride and maybe even slightly overwhelmed because so much is being thrown at you on top of these really big thought-provoking ideas. Seeing people pick up on all that after watching it one time, and just being blown away by the fact that people went back over and over again and continued to find the deeper meanings within every single frame of this film, I think was probably the coolest part.
After beating thousands of other girls in auditions for your first major film role in “True Grit,” does auditioning for demanding roles like “Sinners” get any easier?
That’s a dream, but the answer is no. I think I actually had and still have a really hard time auditioning after that because going from a white sterile room with a tripod and a camera and maybe one person, maybe five, to being on set of a period piece [“True Grit”] with the most incredible set decoration and wardrobe and other actors and filmmakers — I then had to go back into that room and try to do what I was able to prove to myself that I could do. I was like, this is impossible. How do you make something of nothing?
With “Sinners,” they were in preproduction in New Orleans. They were going. They needed somebody. You’re walking into a room full of people that want you to win, right? They are looking for the person to end this part of their journey, which is just as grueling and exhausting and terrifying for them as it might be for you. I didn’t always think about it that way.
You said a while ago that doing “The Edge of Seventeen” allowed you to understand who you were at that phase in your life. Did playing Mary have a similar effect?
Absolutely. I couldn’t have done any of these roles any sooner or any later in my life. It was always in the timing in which I needed it the most.
It’s like learning a physical task where, yeah, I’ve maybe done things similar to archery, but I’ve never picked up a bow and arrow. Suddenly I’m training my body in a way that I never would if it weren’t for this role.
I’ve always carried the utmost pride in my family history. But this gave me the opportunity to just go way deeper than I guess I ever would have at this time in my life. One of the most difficult parts of this for me was not having my main connection to this character and her history, my grandfather, here and alive to call him up and ask him questions.
What would you have asked him?
The list is long. I certainly would have asked him more about his personal experiences. Just how he was able to maneuver, and how he was able to get to a place of feeling proud, knowing that probably wasn’t something he felt, hard to say, maybe the majority of his life.
I had moments on set where, especially when we were shooting the train station scene — I don’t even know if I can find the words right now. “Difficult” surely doesn’t cut it.
There are people out there and have been forever, who, like Mary, wake up every day and have to make this decision of where to live in this gray area and have to live unapologetically in that because they’ve chosen the life that they’ve chosen.
Were there any takeaways people had from “Sinners” that surprised you?
There were certainly conversations that we had as a cast afterward where we were like, wow, people really picked up on that one line or that one moment. There were a couple of those where it was fun to see people pull out just from the top layer to the deepest one.
I know it’s not maybe answering your question necessarily with a specific thing that stood out to me, but that was it. It was the fact that people of all ages, from all over, went and saw this film and got it.
What is your mood heading into the new year? You’re not only coming after “Sinners” but also an expectant mother.
As somebody who likes to plan ahead as far as possible and know where I was going to be, when, at what point and what I was going to be doing, I’ve really leaned into taking everything one day at a time, let alone one month at a time. I have no idea what the future holds and looks like necessarily. And that’s exciting to me.
I’m feeling more inspired than ever coming off “Sinners.” I feel like this movie was a door I’ve been knocking on for a while as far as what it gave me the opportunity to accomplish as an actor.
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