Hailee Steinfeld, best known for playing Mattie Ross in the Coen brothers’ True Grit, turns 17 today. Steinfeld is one of the biggest young actresses to watch right now.
This year alone she played Juliet in the latest adaptation of Romeo and Juliet opposite Douglas Booth, Damian Lewis and Paul Giamatti; she played a major role in Gavin Hood’s adaptation of Ender’s Game; and she had two acclaimed films premiere at the Toronto International Film Festival – Hateship, Loveship alongside Kristen Wiig and Guy Pearce, and Can a Song Save Your Life? which is from the director of Once and co-stars Keira Knightley and Mark Ruffalo. Steinfeld hadn’t appeared in anything since True Grit until October of this year, but she has evidently been busy.
She received a whole whack of attention for True Grit, her debut feature film performance, culminating in a Best Supporting Actress nomination at the Academy Awards, one of the youngest ever actresses to be nominated. If you’ll recall, there was a surge of support behind her Oscar campaign, which only came after the anger over her being campaigned for Supporting and not Lead, since she really carried that movie.
She has another big year lined up for 2014, too. There’s The Homesman, directed by and starring Tommy Lee Jones with Meryl Streep and Hilary Swank. She’ll be in McG’s next action thriller, Three Days to Kill (what a title, folks), as Kevin Costner’s daughter as he accepts one last mission. She’s in Harry Brown director Daniel Barber’s Civil War movie, The Keeping Room, with Sam Worthington and Brit Marling. She is also currently filming Barely Lethal, wherein she plays an assassin who tries to have a normal life.
Obviously, she’s about to be everywhere. She has the talent, so hopefully she can fulfill on her potential.
Other birthdays today:
- Tom Shadyac (55)
- Mos Def (40)
- Mo’Nique (46)
- Vampira! (Rest in peace)