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Entertainment November 18, 2016
Hailee Steinfeld never walked the high school halls – yet that’s exactly what gives her the edge she needs as a troubled teen Nadine in new movie “The Edge of Seventeen.”
Steinfeld, who plays a high schooler struggling through public education in the Nov. 17 release, has been homeschooled since 6th grade. So how does she ace this role as someone so troubled? Turns out that her parents took her out of school as she was the victim of bullying.
“I realize now more than I did in the moment but it’s something that everybody goes through,” Steinfeld told Access Hollywood in the video below. “Obviously when you’re in it you feel like you’re the only person that’s ever felt any of those feelings before. I had a lot of social issues in school … I was confused a lot of the time.”
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By channeling those painful memories, the 19-year-old actress was able to connect with her complex character and relate to her audience. Steinfeld proves she didn’t need to go to prom or cross the graduation stage to know what it feels like to be a high schooler.
“Reading this script and feeling like this does what being a teenager really feels like justice,” Steinfeld said in a Bay Area HQ video. “There’s no superficial element there’s no fairytale ending, there’s no fantasizing of anything. This movie is unapologetic and it’s real.”
The film – which Rolling Stone dubs the new “John Hughes teen movie” – strips the typical high school trope of frills and fantasy. Talk of suicide, betrayal and isolation gives viewers an honest look at today’s generation, tearing at hearts without any promise to repair them. Critics have praised Steinfeld’s film and made it the best-reviewed comedy of 2016.
“The Edge of Seventeen should make Steinfeld a shoo-in for the teen movie young-restless-and-hilarious Hall of Fame,” Rolling Stone’s rave review continues. “At the very least, the humanity she gives this young woman on the verge helps the movie teeter on the edge of being an instant classic.”
Steinfeld’s performance proves the “True Grit” and “Pitch Perfect 2” rising star clearly has the emotional strength to tackle any role thrown her way.
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