Elle Fanning & Hailee Steinfeld for Vanity Fair
They're the two most buzzed-about young actresses of this year's awards season. They've both gotten rave reviews for the two biggest roles of their careers -- one in an artistic, low-key indie flick, and one in a dramatic, high-profile western. They both campaigned for an Oscar nomination, and when one of them edged out the other for a Best Supporting Actress nod, we wondered if there wasn't some love lost between the 12-year-old veteran and the 14-year-old newcomer.
So you can imagine our delight when Vanity Fair finally brought them together. Elle Fanning and Hailee Steinfeld came face-to-face for a photoshoot titled "Old Souls" that appeared in the magazine's February issue.
There isn't any new information in the article (which appears below), but this photo of adorable photo of Elle hugging Hailee? Priceless.
The article above their heads reads: "Precocity isn't the word for what these girls have. All child actors are precocious. Rather, Fanning and Steinfeld are naturals, each uncanny in her ability to internalize her director's conceptualization of an unusual child character and to come out with a performance that is still convincingly, unphonily child-like. Fanning, in Somewhere, does it with softness, using twinkly kindess and the poise of a celebrity-rehab nurse to fill in the empty space in the life of her debauched actor dad (Stephen Dorff). Steinfeld in the Coen brothers' True Grit, does it with hardness, holding her face and spine firm, negotiating like an Old West Scott Boras, and attaching herself chigger-like to Jeff Bridges's salty old US marshal until he agrees to help her avenge her father's murder. Fanning, 12, and Steinfeld, 14, have come by their professional good fortune very differently -- the former as a seasoned juvenile pro and kid sister of a still-more-seasoned juvenile pro, the latter as a diamond in the rough, one of thousands of girls auditioned by the Coens' people. But from here, for both girls, barring such nuisances as school and alternative career choices, the possibilities for further great performances are limitless."
Brian Quist, the director of the photoshoot, said in an interview, "The girls had an honesty about them that was incredibly refreshing. Each seemed perfectly comfortable in that middle ground between youth and stardom. Hailee started off a bit nervous, but Elle loosened her up, and before long they were like best friends. At one point, they were trying to twine the girl's brown and blonde hair, and for a moment they were stuck together. It didn't take long to untangle them, and both girls laughed through it."
If we said "Aww!" for the rest of our lives, it still wouldn't be enough. (We're also reminded of Willow Smith's Whip My Hair.)