2007–2015: Breakthrough and critical recognition
Steinfeld began acting at age 10; she appeared in several short films, including playing the role of Talia Alden in the award-winning She's a Fox. Steinfeld was chosen for the role of Mattie Ross in True Grit when she was 13. The film was released internationally in December 2010; Richard Corliss of Time magazine called her performance one of the Top 10 of 2010, and wrote that Steinfeld "delivers the orotund dialogue as if it were the easiest vernacular, stares down bad guys, wins hearts. That's a true gift". Reviews from Roger Ebert, the Los Angeles Times, and Rolling Stone were also complimentary. The role earned Steinfeld a nomination at the 83rd Academy Awards for an Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress; it went to Melissa Leo. In May 2011, five months after True Grit was released, she was chosen to be the new face of Italian designer brand Miu Miu.
In 2011, Steinfeld was cast at age 14 to play Juliet in a 2013 adaptation of Romeo and Juliet. The role was originally intended for a 22-year-old actress; there was concern about nudity in the film, but its director explained that when Steinfeld was cast, the script was changed to make it age-appropriate. The film was released in October 2013 to poor reviews in the United States and internationally. Steinfeld starred as Petra Arkanian in Ender's Game, a science-fiction action-adventure film based on the book by Orson Scott Card. The film was released on November 1, 2013.
Steinfeld played Violet, one of the supporting characters in the romance-drama Begin Again. The film was given a limited release in the United States on June 27, 2014, grossing $134,064 on its opening weekend; it opened in wide release on July 11. It was re-released by The Weinstein Company on August 29. Paramount Pictures closed a deal in 2011 for the screen rights to the Cat Patrick novel Forgotten and announced that she would play London Lane in a project yet to be filmed as of 2025. In 2014, Steinfeld was announced to star as Min Green in a screen adaptation of Daniel Handler's romantic-comedy book Why We Broke Up, but as of 2022, the film had not gone into production.
Steinfeld was cast as Eliza opposite Ender's Game co-star Asa Butterfield in the film adaptation of Ten Thousand Saints, which premiered on January 23, 2015, at the 2015 Sundance Film Festival. Steinfeld was originally cast to play the female lead in the 2015 film, For the Dogs, but was replaced by actress Emma Roberts. In spring 2014, Steinfeld narrated as the voice of Anne Frank for an exhibition on Frank at the Museum of Tolerance. In October, she was cast to star as Hadley in The Statistical Probability of Love at First Sight, based on the novel of the same name by Jennifer E. Smith. But when that film was released in 2023, Haley Lu Richardson was starring. Steinfeld was announced in January 2015 as the star of the film adaptation of Carrie Pilby, the young adult novel by Caren Lissner; she left the project due to scheduling conflicts. In March, Steinfeld was one of the voice actors for the English-language dub of the Japanese animated film When Marnie Was There. Steinfeld plays Anna Sasaki alongside Kiernan Shipka as Marnie. In April 2015, Steinfeld was cast in a lead role in Break My Heart 1000 Times, based on the YA novel by Daniel Waters. Scott Speer was set to direct, but the film has not been made as of 2022.
Steinfeld starred as the Trinity in the music video for "Bad Blood" by Taylor Swift featuring Kendrick Lamar. The video premiered at the 2015 Billboard Music Awards ceremony on May 17, 2015, and won a MTV Video Music Award for Video of the Year. Steinfeld starred in limited-release movie Barely Lethal. The movie was directed by Kyle Newman and was released on May 29, 2015. Steinfeld co-starred in Pitch Perfect 2, alongside Anna Kendrick, Rebel Wilson, and Elizabeth Banks, who also directed. She played some of her songs for a representative from Republic Records at an event in New York City, and the label signed her. In May, Republic Records announced the record deal and that Steinfeld was working on her first release.
