Hailee, Chloe & Kiernan for EW
Three big cheers to Entertainment Weekly Magazine for gathering three of our favorite young actresses and interviewing them together. How sweet to listen to Hailee, Chloe, and Kiernan talking, joking, and giving each other advice and compliments. At the end of the interview, the girls joke about all making a movie together. We'd be the first ones in line to see it!
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Child actors get a bad rap. Pushed too hard too soon. Ruined at a young age by pressue and excess, their depressing flameouts the stuff of tabloid heaven. But the story doesn't have to end that way, at least according to the extraordinarily promising young stars EW gathered together at a Los Angeles hotel last month.
All are enjoying a professional moment that actors dream of their whole careers. Kiernan Shipka, the youngest of the group at almost 11, is fresh off a miraculous season as Don Draper's unruly daughter on AMC's Mad Men. Lovely newcomer Hailee Steinfeld, age 13, beat out over 15,000 young actresses for the pivotal role in the Coen brothers' upcoming True Grit. And Chloe Grace Moretz, the riveting 13-year-old star of this year's Kick-Ass and Let Me In, was due back on the London set of Martin Scorsese's Hugo Cabret by the end of the week. So, what's it like to be in the driver's seat in Hollywood when your feet can't even reach the pedals?
Kiernan, Hailee, and Chloe at Entertainment Weekly's "Kids Table."
They've managed to grab the spotlight without any help from Nickelodeon or Disney.
Chloe Grace Moretz. Hometown: Atlanta. Dream Role: "Scarlett O'Hara in Gone With the Wind or Holly Golightly in Breakfast at Tiffany's." Up Next: Martin Scorsese's Hugo Cabret, due out in December 2011.
Kiernan Shipka. Hometown: Chicago. On her Mad Men mom: "[Actress] January Jones is amazing. But I hate Betty as a person, and sometimes I just want to punch her in the face." Next Up: Seeking film roles.
Hailee Steinfeld. Hometown: Los Angeles. People tell her she looks like: A young Diane Lane. Up Next: The Coen brothers' True Grit, opposite Jeff Bridges and Matt Damon, opening December 25.
Breaking into the business.
EW: Kiernan, you're the youngest of the group. How old were you when you went on your first audition?
Kiernan: I did a commercial when I was five-months-old for Gerber baby food.
Hailee: No way!
Kiernan: Once I got out to California, my first audition was when I was six-and-a-half. One of my first auditions was for Mad Men.
EW: Chloe, what was your big break?
Chloe: My first [major] movie was The Amityville Horror. The audition process was insane. They had me cry about twenty times for [producer] Michael Bay. At the last audition they were like, "If you can do this one more time, we'll book you." And I was like, "I can't cry anymore." But Kick-Ass... [Everyone giggles] I'm sorry, Kick-Butt would definitely be the biggest breakout for me.
EW: Do any of you have a ritual for celebrating when you get a role?
Chloe: Well, in the beginning, my mom would give me a dog per film.
Hailee: Oh my gosh, you're going to have to start asking for a pony per film.
Chloe: [laughs] Each time I was like, "Mom, I worked really hard. Can I have a dog?" And now I have four dogs, and my mom is like, "I can't take any more."
EW: A lot of creative people are shy in person. Would anybody here describe themselves as an introvert?
Hailee: In some ways I am, but this is my comfort zone, talking with kids who know what I go through every day. I've been homeschooled for two years.
EW: Are all of you homeschooled? [Everyone nods]
Chloe: Since the third grace.
Kiernan: I started homeschool about three years ago.
EW: It's funny that your images of high school will in some way just be from the movies, but you'll probably all play high schoolers on screen one day.
Chloe: High school is brutal.
Hailee: I went to school my whole life before that, so I know what it's like to go to school every day and have a social life. But I feel like with kids now they can't always understand. They don't get it. Chloe: They're like, "Why can't you hang out today?"
Hailee: Yeah! It's like, "I have an audition." "Well, what's that?"
The Downsides of fame: paparazzi, hackers, and short-lived friendships.
EW: Have any of you lost friendships?
Chloe: It's hard to find real friends when you're in the business like this. Just because either people want to be famous or they're jealous of you.
Hailee: Exactly, she's right! Seriously, keep talking.
Noah Ringer: Being in the movie industry, you actually get a lot more friends. But you get to be really close friends with adults. It's not the same thing, but...
EW: Not in the way you can invite one of them to hang out?
Chloe: No, no. I don't think I'd call Nicolas Cage [who played her father in Kick-Ass] up and say, "So, you wanna go see a movie together?" [Everyone laughs]
EW: That sounds a little lonely.
Chloe: I definitely think the worst part of acting is the paparazzi. The paparazzi shove you, they shove you into the street. I just got my e-mail hacked recently. They stole all my pictures, my Twitter, my Facebook.
Hailee: Your personal Facebook? Oh, my God.
Chloe: We got broken into, and I got my computer stolen and my iPad. So I have fake everything now.
EW: Do you find yourself being onguard as a public person?
Chloe: I do. You know, you walk around with more of a knowing instict. I got this weird stalker person in France, and he followed me into the hotel and said all this stuff to me. I was really freaked out and I didn't go out of the house for two days. It just gets a lot more heightened when you get more press.
EW: Oh no, Hailee, your face! You're the greenest of the group, so how do you feel listening to Chloe?
Hailee: [laughs] After hearing this, maybe I'm not so ready! No, I'm kidding. I've never experienced any of this before, so -- I've got to be honest -- I don't know how I feel. But I'm enjoying the last, um, well, I know it's exactly 88 days until True Grit comes out. [Everyone laughs]
Chloe: It's cool. It's fun. Just be on guard. Don't put pictures out there that you don't want to be seen, whether it's on your phone or whatever. You can always get hacked.
EW: Have you all given yourself permission to stop acting if it stops being fun?
Kiernan: Right now, it doesn't feel like work. It may feel like soccer or ballet for other kids.
How to stay grounded: get your own glass of milk!
EW: A child actor's career is often three acts: obscurity, fame, crash and burn. How will you not let that be your story, too?
Kiernan: It all comes down to your family.
Chloe: Yeah, everyone is always getting you drinks or whatever on the set. And my mom is always like, "No, if she wants a drink, she'll get it herself."
EW: There's a stereotype of stage parents, whether from shows like Toddlers & Tiaras...
Chloe: My favorite show ever! They're like little porcelain freaky dolls.
Hailee: I want to know what those kids are like when they're our age.
Kiernan: They give kids flippers!
EW: Yikes, what are flippers?
Kiernan: Fake teeth.
Kid actors, grown-up projects: Why can't I watch my own show?
EW: When actors first move to Los Angeles, often they'll take whatever role they can get. Yet each of you has worked on high-caliber projects that adults love. Was that an active choice you each made, or luck?
Chloe: There are different roads you can take. You can take more of a -- I hate to say it -- Disney-type route, which is easy and quick and fast and famous.
EW: Were you ever on that route?
Chloe: No, I always had in my mind that I wanted to be more of an actor's actor. My favorite actors are Natalie Portman and Audrey Hepburn.
Kiernan: I love Breakfast at Tiffany's.
Chloe: It's my favorite film.
EW: I bet most of you have never seen one another's work. I can't imagine any of your parents would let you watch something as sophisticated as Mad Men.
Hailee: I've seen a little bit after Kiernan and I met at a photoshoot because I just had to see you.
Kiernan: My parents don't even let me watch it. I go to the table reads and everything, but I can't watch it on television.
EW: You all spend so much time with adults. Do you ever wish you could just be around kids more.
Hailee: We should just write a movie right now and make parts for all of us.
Kiernan: I'll be the producer.
Chloe: And we'll all be the stars.
P.S. We wondered if maybe Chloe isn't annoyed when other young actresses become famous so fast. Look at it this way: Chloe's been cranking out project after project since age 7, then Hailee does her first movie at age 13 and suddenly seems to shoot to the same level of fame. But in the interview, Chloe and Hailee seem to hit it off! So obviously, no hard feelings.