- Hey, I'm Hailee Steinfeld,
and I am in studio with The Hollywood Reporter.
(upbeat pop music)
- All right, Hailee, thanks so much for joining us.
- Thank you.
- Now, first of all, congratulations on Dickinson.
- Thank you so much.
- Such an amazing show,
and it's also your first time starring
and producing in a project.
What was that like?
- It was very fun.
A little bit stressful at times,
but really just an amazing experience.
I have some amazing fellow producers on this show,
and working with Apple has been a dream,
so it's really just been a wonderful experience.
Producing is something I've always been interested in doing,
and I, of course, wanted whatever
that first project I produced to be something
that I felt the way I feel about Dickinson.
- Did you have any learning curve,
being that this was your first time having
a producer credit, versus just starring in a project?
- Absolutely.
I mean, there were times where I would have a few
to either go up to my dressing room or to my trailer,
and, I don't know, take a nap.
Take five, and in those moments,
I would find myself in meetings or on calls
or behind the monitor with the directors,
which was just so exciting to almost have to be.
In other scenarios, I guess I've just kind of stood back
in behind the monitor and kind of observed,
but being sort of more in the playing field directly
as a producer was definitely something
that would occupy all of the down time,
any of the down time.
- And what was it about this show that really pulled you in?
I mean, was there a scene or a moment
when you were reading the script and you thought,
all right, I have to be a part of this?
- One of the first, if not the first scene of episode one,
if I'm remembering correctly, I'll go with one of
to be safe, one of the first scenes in episode one,
Emily, oh, and actually,
I think it was the first scene now
that I'm thinking about it, Emily is at her desk writing.
It's four in the morning.
Lavinia, her sister, comes to the door
with two empty buckets that need to be filled with water,
and she has been, according to her, fetching the water
for the last couple of times that they needed to be fetched,
and comes to Emily and says, "It's your turn,"
and she basically says, "Why doesn't Austin do it?"
Austin is their brother, and she says,
"Because Austin is a boy," right?
He shouldn't have to, he doesn't need to.
And Emily's response to Lavinia in that moment,
I remember reading it and thinking like,
that's what this show is, and it has this very modern sense
to it in the language and in the music and in a lot
of the scenarios, and so that response that she had then,
it all kind of clicked, and I was like, this is so different
and special and exciting and just sort
of walks such a fine line of being a little,
it feels a little dangerous and scandalous
and it's just so different, really, and I remember talking
to Alena Smith, the writer and creator shortly
after I read those two scripts,
and she so perfectly articulated everything she wanted
this season one to be, and from that point on,
I knew that it was something I wanted to be involved in.
- Yeah, and it's not every day
that you see Emily Dickinson twerking to hip-hop, right?
- It's not.
No, it's not every day.
This is definitely unlike any Emily Dickinson story
you have seen or heard, so that is also another something
I'm definitely looking forward to seeing,
and introducing people to, or reintroducing people
to her work and her poetry,
because although this show is very wild
in the sense of there is twerking.
- [Neha] Some wild nights.
- There are some wild nights.
It is very driven by her poetry and the themes
of her poetry, which are incredibly real and vulnerable
and authentic, and, yeah, yeah, that's what the show is.
- And she's also a little bit of a rebel,
a wild child in this.
Were you able to relate to that at all?
- Parts of it.
I think a lot of her rebellion comes
from fighting against constraints and as a young woman
in her time, she was forbidden
to have any creative fulfillment,
to write, to read,
to go to the circus, which was just a world
of color and creativity.
She was forbidden to experience any of that, and she wasn't
about to let that stop her from doing the one thing
that made her feel alive, and I truly feel like, I mean,
Emily is nothing without her writing,
and I feel the same way about my art,
and so I do feel like I connect with her on certain levels
of that rebellion where she wouldn't take no for an answer.
She wouldn't let anybody make her believe
that that wasn't what she was meant to do, right?
- [Neha] Yeah.
- And I definitely am inspired by that.
- Yeah, and being that modern millennial woman,
were you able to pull from that and relate to that,
because you very much are this modern woman.
- Thank you.
Yeah, I definitely, I think what's so cool
about the show is that so much of what they dealt
with then is somehow similar, very similar to a lot
of situations we, as people in general, are dealing with,
but women specifically, this show is about one,
not being put in a box and not having to label
a certain behavior or feeling,
and it's about being seen
and understood, and Emily spent the majority
of her life fighting to be understood and heard at times,
and constantly went back and forth as
to whether or not she wanted her poetry published.
Of course she did, but then would go through waves
of not wanting it, or maybe, I don't know, there's so much
that's sort of left unsaid or unknown, for that matter,
but yeah, I definitely can relate
to that part of her as well.
- And how much historical content went into the show?
Because there were some scenes,
I was thinking about that opium scene, right?
And I'm like, whoa, they know how to party.
- Yeah, they do know how to party.
- But also, I heard that it was popular for people
to experiment with opium back in the day,
so how much of that was embedded in her history?
- A lot of it, in fact, all of it.
Alena Smith, our writer,
she did so much research,
as did all of us, but everything stems from a truth.
She just expanded on all of it in order to make this show
as fun and exciting as it is, but she, from the get-go,
has been my Emily Dickinson encyclopedia, and, of course,
there are little-known facts, but a lot
that we might know about her, and there are other pieces
in film and television on Emily Dickinson,
and what's great about this is
that it's not a straightforward biopic.
It's very much its own thing, and our interpretation of her
and her poetry and what might possibly have been going
through her mind and her soul
at the time since she was writing these poems,
and so that's kind of playing off those moments,
and that episode particularly, Wild Nights,
is one of my favorite poems and one of my favorite episodes.
- Yeah, I loved it.
And then there was also her relationship with Sue,
and I didn't know about that, so how much
of that was pulled from history?
- Well, I do know that even today
there are Dickinson scholars that are still chipping away
at the details of that, and uncovering more
and more every day about her relationship with Sue,
but it is said that she was in love with her,
and wrote poems to her and about her and
about their relationship, and it's truly so complex,
and I fell in love with the way that we kind of
explored that relationship, because
it's so special and intimate,
and there's such a true understanding between the two
of them, and like I said a second ago,
Emily spent the majority of her life struggling
to be understood, and there was one person,
or one of very few,
that she felt truly loved her for who she was,
and that happened to be a woman,
and later, her sister-in-law.
So it's, again, another wild ride that was just another part
of her life, but something I really love,
and love how it's incorporated into the show, and again,
like I said a second ago,
this show is about not putting people in a box,
and they didn't necessarily have the language
that we do now, the labels and the terminology,
and I think that our show sort of perfectly captures
that love and understanding one another is something so rare
and special, and I think that we really find
that in this show.
- You also got to work with Wiz Khalifa in this,
who was amazing as Death,
and what was it like working with him?
- It was so fun.
It was kind of a whirlwind.
It all happened so fast.
He came in, he was in the middle of working on a record,
I believe, but yeah, he was so wonderful and,
I mean, best sense of humor.
- So natural too. - Always so natural,
like a great actor.
- And this was his first acting gig,
I think. - I believe so.
I believe so.
He was so prepared and truly loved the work, the material,
and wanted to do a really good job, and he definitely did.
- So now that you guys work together,
are there talks of a collaboration, possibly?
- Musically?
- Mm-hmm.
- What, there can be.
He and I did, we got to talking about a bunch of music chat
in between takes and whatnot, and those sort
of conversations, I feel like, they kind
of sometimes were like, you know when people are like,
"We should go to lunch.
"We should go to coffee."
And I'm like, "Yeah, for sure."
And then you realize you've been saying it
for like two years, and nothing's happened.
I don't know, I feel like those conversations kind
of always sort of had all the ideas that we suggested,
but him and I have definitely kept in touch,
and I'm a huge fan of him personally and musically,
so we'll see.
That would be awesome.
- Yes, and speaking of singing and music,
the soundtrack to this show is so awesome.
- Thank you.
- I mean, you had Billie Eilish, ASAP Rocky,
there were a couple of others, right?
And you also wrote a song for this show.
What was that experience like?
- Any time I get to combine my two passions,
it's truly a dream, and I always want to only do it
if it makes sense, and if the other filmmakers involved feel
that whatever that song is accurately represents the piece
that we're trying, and when it came to "Afterlife,"
well, first, the music was a huge part
of why I also wanted to be involved in this.
It almost plays its own character in the show,
and the soundtrack is on repeat for me,
and has been for a while.
- Now, having done a show that's so heavily influenced
by poetry, did that impact
or affect your own songwriting in any way?
- Absolutely.
I always love when I have those full-circle moments of,
I get taken away from music every so often
when I have a wonderful opportunity like Dickinson come up,
and I'm still writing,
but I'm out of studio mode, right,
if you will, for three, four, five months at a time,
and I always love when I get back into the studio,
and I'm like, wow, so that one part
of whatever was driving me insane or stressing me out
at that one point, it's good for something,
and it's right now, and it all works out, right?
And with this, I got back into the studio
after we wrapped season one, and I was so ready to just,
and maybe because I'd been away from it for a couple
of months, or I don't know, but I got to the studio,
and I was so overly eager to write about everything
that was on my mind, and I really do think that it's because
of the fact that Emily was so unafraid
and so unapologetic when it came to herself and her writing.
She truly was fearless in her writing,
and I halfway, or not even halfway,
but a couple of weeks into writing,
I was like, wow, I really do think
that definitely played a part in it,
so I do feel like I've got this new sort
of fearless approach to my writing.
- So you're writing new music.
Are we gonna hear some of that soon?
- Imagine, nah.
Yes, of course.
- All this writing, you're like, ah, maybe not.
- Yeah, just keep it and put it in a drawer like Emily did.
Maybe somebody will find it in 200 years.
No, I will be putting new music out early next year,
and I'm very excited.
It's been a long time coming, but it's all coming together,
and I'm getting there.
So I'm very excited for people to hear it.
- So acting, singing, producing.
I mean, what's the next challenge you want to tackle?
- Oh, boy.
Next challenge.
Well, I discovered earlier today that I can't cook,
so maybe I'll take that
- Cooking? - challenge on and just work
on it in the meantime.
- Put on a little cooking show.
- Yeah. - I love it.
All right, Hailee, so much fun hanging out.
- Thank you.
- Thank you again for joining us.
- Of course, thank you.