My mom taught me to live by the three p's: to always be passionate, persistent, and prepared.
— Hailee Steinfeld
I feel like every day I discover new actors and new filmmakers and different genres, and it's just so cool.
I love to hang out with my friends and go to the movies. My mom and I are involved in the Mother/Daughter Organization - national charity work. Whenever I get free time, we volunteer. It's an organization so mothers and daughters can spend time together while volunteering.
The rivalry between the Montague and the Capulet kids seems very modern to me. Juliet is a free spirit, full of untapped love and passion. I think a lot of girls can relate to her. And it's very relevant in terms of kids defying their parents.
Whether I'm a bit of an old soul or not, I am who I am, and that doesn't change, whether I'm with adults or with my friends.
My character in 'True Grit' would set these goals for herself that seemed near impossible, but to her they were possible. She was never going to believe anything else other than that.
It needs to be said and heard: it's OK to be who you are.
I was home-schooled.
Music is a very big part of my preparation as an actor.
The shooting of the guns, that was kind of funny, because rolling a cigarette and shooting a gun aren't like normal things for a 13-year old girl!
Well I was eight years old, and I have an older cousin who is three years older than me and she was doing acting, commercials, and modeling at the time and... to see my cousin doing that was really inspiring and I wanted to do it. So I went to my mom and I asked her if I could do it, and for the acting part of it, she made me study for a year.
Child actors come off as work being their life and doing it 24/7, but I still have those days where it's totally, like, whatever: shopping, movies, adventures.
Everything I do now is a first.
Actors play different characters in every project they do. Though it has nothing to do with my craft, the red carpet gives me the opportunity to show who I really am and be myself.
I feel like if you see five films not knowing who made them, you know which one is the Coen Brothers.
'When Marnie Was There' was the first animated film I've ever done.
Every girl wishes she was Juliet in some version of their life.
I feel that for the story of 'Romeo and Juliet' to be impactful, it has to be believable, and there has to be a certain level of chemistry between the two characters.
With 'True Grit,' the language was very specific, as is Shakespeare. You couldn't really improvise, nor would you really ever have to. I never felt the need to. It was all so beautifully written, and it was all right there.
Singing is something I've always loved to do, and I'd never considered taking it further than the shower.
I went to my mum at about seven or eight and said I want to start acting, but the week before, I had said I wanted to do ballet. She said if I took acting classes for a full year, she would look further into it, and that's how it started.
The one thing I loved so much about making 'Pitch Perfect 2' - especially in comparison to a movie like 'Ten Thousand Saints' - is you can go and be yourself, and you just know that all your weirdness and craziness and imperfections are completely embraced and accepted.
I love the film route and I'm gong to try my hardest to stay on it.
My very first audition was on the lot of Paramount, and I was put on tape and it was very nerve-racking. I think it was about 15 pages.
I was just another girl.
The idea of revenge coming from a 14-year-old girl isn't, you know, exactly right.
Fashion is something I've always been interested in... I used to watch the Oscars but paid no attention to the awards... It wasn't until I started attending red carpet events and was flown out to Paris for my first show, and saw how much is put into it all, that I had this new appreciation for everything.
When I was auditioning for 'True Grit,' I was on the Paramount lot. I was wearing clothes from the 1800s that were big and uncomfortable.
I find that with period pieces, you're sort of able to really take advantage of what's around you because prop-wise, wardrobe-wise and location-wise, it's all so specific due to that time.
I really love all types of music. I'm really open to that. I really love Bruno Mars, Justin Timberlake and some James Taylor and Elton John stuff.
When 'Romeo and Juliet' came along, I fell in love with the way that it was written and how innocent and vulnerable it was and how different it was from 'True Grit.' I really liked that.
I haven't even graduated from high school yet - and I've realised in the last four years, with all the travelling I've done and all of the movies I've made, that the world is my classroom. I've experienced things I don't know you can necessarily get from reading a history book.
It's hard not to love everything Prada does.
There's a different energy with a female director, a female at the head of the production. I don't prefer one over the other, but they're definitely different experiences, and I would love to have more of them.
When I was 13, I looked like I could play 16, and I wasn't mature enough to play 16.
My first modeling job was Gap, and my first time in front of the camera was for a Soda Pop Girls commercial - it's one of those Bratz dolls, Barbie dolls... one of those.
Facebook is my life.
I don't know if it has set in or not. Honestly, it's crazy. It's such an amazing honor. I remember thinking back to being in my room waiting for the call to see if I got the part. It's like winning the lottery. I'm proud to be a member of such an amazing cast - that's the best award of all.
