Hailee, Happily Ever After
A few years ago, Hailee Steinfeld, the avid pinner she is, created a Pinterest mood board titled "28." There wasn't a rhyme or reason to it other than the fact that, at the time, 28 felt like an ideal age to usher in change and accomplish certain life milestones. As she tells me, the slightly embarrassing hodgepodge of images only decipherable to her was effectively a representation of what she hoped her life would look like.
Coincidentally and cosmically speaking, 28 can be a year of great significance in one's life. It's at this time that you are said to be entering your Saturn return—an astrological event that takes place when Saturn, the planet of responsibility and maturity, returns to the position in space that it occupied when a person was born—which happens approximately every 29.5 years. Your Saturn return is a period often defined by the self-reflection, growth, and transformative challenges that can be felt between 27 and 30.
For Steinfeld, who turned 28 in December, this couldn't be more accurate.
A career-changing role. A major haircut. New entrepreneurial endeavors. An engagement. Both professionally and personally, the actress has reached a thrilling turning point, and whether it was always written in the stars or the result of a good old-fashioned Pinterest manifestation, you can't help but feel she was destined for this major moment.
"I'm so excited to continue feeling like I am confidently and unapologetically stepping into my own more and more," Steinfeld says. Speaking on Zoom, the actress, multiplatinum musician, and producer is comfortably seated on a couch in what she calls her "creative den" in the Buffalo, New York, home she shares with Bills quarterback and fiancé Josh Allen. Wearing a mauve quarter-zip jacket with matching pants, her sleek brunette bob tucked behind her ears, she adds, "I feel like I've been given some wonderful opportunities throughout my life to do that, but I've never done it like I'm doing it now. I think that has to do with my age and where I'm at."
Since she landed her first major role at 13 in the Coen brothers' Western True Grit, for which she earned an Oscar nomination, Steinfeld's career can be marked by a series of high notes. There was her leading role in the critically acclaimed 2016 coming-of-age drama The Edge of Seventeen. This was followed by her turn in Pitch Perfect 2 and Pitch Perfect 3, which introduced the world to her superior vocal abilities and prompted her seismic shift into pop stardom with hits like "Love Myself" and "Starving." Then there was her TV debut in the 2019 Apple TV+ series Dickinson, for which she also served as executive producer, and that earned her a coveted Peabody Award. She then made her foray into voice acting in the Academy Award–nominated film Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse and Netflix's Arcane. The list is expansive and impressive.
Still, Steinfeld was ready for a new challenge. After a nearly five-year hiatus from film (her last movie was 2018's Bumblebee) followed by the 2023 actor's strike, she was eager to get back to work and show herself in a new light. As if the universe was listening, rumors of a new Ryan Coogler project started swirling.
