Don’t you love it when tweens or teen females are spunky, super smart and hold their own against men four or five times their age? That’s why we love the Western movie True Grit! Ever want to go on an adventure where you ride horses, shoot guns and fight bad guys? Then you will identify with Mattie Ross, played in the film by 14-year-old newcomer Hailee Steinfeld.
Based on a long-revered novel that, today, might fit into the “Young Adult” novel classification that also holds the Twilight Saga and The Hunger Games trilogy, True Grit features young teen Mattie Ross who hires a grumpy and seasoned, one-eyed lawman played by Jeff Bridges, to track down a hired hand named Chaney (Josh Brolin) who murdered her father. Mattie insists on going along for the manhunt, as does pompous Texas Ranger, La Boeuf (Matt Damon) who is also determined to take Chaney in for some Texas justice.
The Mattie character has tons of “smart” and complicated dialogue in the movie as well as narrating the film and directors the Coen brothers, searched all over the U.S. for the perfect young girl to play her. “If we didn't have the right person in that role we would have been scre**d," Joel Coen said. "She had to hold her own with Jeff and Matt. There's a big part of moviemaking that is just being lucky, and we were very, very lucky to find her." Where did they find her? Right in Hollywood’s backyard; Thousand Oaks, California. Now we’re briefly with Hailee in Beverly Hills where her co-star, Oscar-winning actor Jeff Bridges tells us that, despite Hailee’s tough character, the young actress “..has got a very sweet side as well. We play a lot of Pigs [he’s referring to a fun game on his website called “Pass the Pigs”]. Bull Bacon was her pig name, and she could be very intimidating. She would throw those leaning jowlers and double leaning jowlers occasionally. It scared me. I could go on and on!”
Okay "Pig" girl, let’s dish….
TeenHollywood: This is your first movie. What advice did the actors give you that you took to heart?
Hailee Steinfeld: I think the best advice that the actors have given me is to not take anything too seriously, but to have fun and, well, [she looks over at Jeff who grins back] take it somewhat seriously, right? But just to have fun with things
Jeff Bridges as Rooster Cogburn and Hailee Steinfeld as Mattie Ross in "True Grit." Paramount Pictures
TeenHollywood: Can you talk about speaking the dialogue in this movie, which is very unusual and old-fashioned? [full words, no “I can’t” but “I can not”, etc.].
Hailee: When I first got the script, that was the first thing that I really had to work on was making sure that I understood what everything meant and then I had to go back through and make sure that I understood what everything meant to me emotionally and how I could relate to it in my own life.
TeenHollywood: You also have a strange accent.
Hailee: With the accent, just getting on set and everyone talking in it, that happened naturally.
TeenHollywood: What was the most fun doing a western for you?
Hailee: The horseback riding was fun. I used to ride English [style] a couple of years ago, so to be able to pick back up on that, that was fun.
TeenHollywood: We’ve never seen you before. How did you get this movie?
Hailee: Well, I’ve been acting since I was eight [mostly on TV].
TeenHollywood: What fun things did you get to learn how to do for the film, other than ride Western style? Hailee: I learned how to shoot a gun and roll a cigarette. Those were the two main things I had to learn.
Hailee Steinfeld as Mattie Ross in "True Grit." Paramount Pictures
TeenHollywood: Your scene with Josh Brolin who plays bad guy Chaney, is really rough and scary. How did you prepare for that campfire scene with Josh?
Hailee: Fifteen minutes after I met him for the first time we were rehearsing that and then he was on top of me with the knife to my neck. So it was kind of interesting [note: nothing bad happens].
TeenHollywood: Did you do your own stunts?
Hailee: I did most of them, besides the falling down the snake pit. That was the biggest stunt. [Like I said], I learned to shoot a gun. Before I went on location that was one of the things that I wanted to make sure that I had a clue of what I was doing. So I had my dad take me to a shooting range with a friend of ours who’s an L.A.P D. officer and he kind of told me everything I needed to know.
TeenHollywood: How was it being the only girl with all these dudes in the film?
Hailee: That wasn’t bad [big grin]. They’re awesome, they’re amazing, and I was surrounded by women the entire time too. Like the hair/make-up people and wardrobe. My mom was with me, my tutor, so I was surrounded by women the entire time, but I feel like all of the guys were like big kids so it was a lot of fun.
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