Hailee Steinfeld: The co-star Matt Damon called “extraordinary”
Ever since he made his breakthrough in 1997 with the drama film Good Will Hunting, Matt Damon has accomplished pretty much everything possible as an actor. He’s worked with some of the biggest directors and actors in the industry and has been recognised time and time again for his versatility and endless talent.
When thinking of Damon’s on-screen efforts, one immediately recalls the brilliance of The Talented Mr. Ripley, the Bourne movies, Saving Private Ryan, The Martian, Interstellar, and Oppenheimer. This shows that throughout his career, the Massachusetts-born star has consistently delivered the goods.
Indeed, the list of quality movies with Damon’s name on is seemingly endless, and there are few genres that the iconic actor has not detailed his talents in. Even in the western genre, Damon has proven his worth, as in the 2010 film True Grit by the Coen brothers, based on the 1968 Charles Portis novel of the same name.
True Grit had already been made into a film in 1969 with John Wayne in the lead role, but the Coens’ version saw Jeff Bridges play the lead role of Deputy US Marshal ‘Rooster’ Cogburn alongside the likes of Damon, Hailee Steinfeld, Josh Brolin and Barry Pepper, leading to ten Academy Award nominations.
The film tells of a 14-year-old farm girl called Mattie Ross who hires Cogburn to seek out the outlaw who killed her father. It was Steinfeld who played the role of Mattie, and she gave a performance that left quite an impression on Matt Damon, who proceeded to call her “quite extraordinary”.
In an interview with RTE, Damon said of Steinfeld, “She’s 13-years-old and I wouldn’t believe that a 13-year-old would really be capable of this type of performance. It’s a really tough role but she’s just got an enormous amount of poise.” In fact, Steinfeld was so impressive that Damon saw parallels between the young actor and the legendary Jodie Foster, who had also emerged as a child actor in her early years.
Damon was left with the hopes that Steinfeld could emulate Foster’s career because he knew that the film industry could be “brutal”. Explaining how Foster managed her career after her early success, Damon noted, “Jodie Foster is an example of somebody who clearly has a great deal of intelligence and talent and has come through it and has got the better of the business rather than the other way round. I’m hoping that’s what Hailee has in store for her.”
After making her breakthrough with True Grit, Steinfeld went on to achieve further acclaim for her efforts in the Pitch Perfect movies, as well as The Edge of Seventeen, Ender’s Games and in the recent animated Spider-Man movies, in which she provided the voice acting for the character Gwen Stacy/Spider-Woman.
Even working alongside the likes of Jeff Bridges and Josh Brolin, it was Steinfeld who seemed to make the biggest impression on Damon, who had admittedly, by that point in his career, worked with many of the most prominent actors in Hollywood. In turn, Steinfeld would likely have been buoyed by the words of her co-star and encouraged to take her career on further with confidence and full force.
Check out the trailer for the Coen Brothers’ True Grit below to see Steinfeld in action.