{"id":531,"date":"2025-04-19T17:15:45","date_gmt":"2025-04-19T17:15:45","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.habitaliaimobiliaria.com\/?p=531"},"modified":"2025-04-20T08:27:32","modified_gmt":"2025-04-20T08:27:32","slug":"sinners-helped-hailee-steinfeld-explore-her-familys-racial-history","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.habitaliaimobiliaria.com\/index.php\/2025\/04\/19\/sinners-helped-hailee-steinfeld-explore-her-familys-racial-history\/","title":{"rendered":"Sinners Helped Hailee Steinfeld Explore Her Family\u2019s Racial History"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Spoilers ahead.\u00a0 <\/strong>Hailee Steinfeld<\/a> never fully understood her African American roots<\/a>. She knew her father was Jewish and her mother Filipino, but Black American? Never crossed her mind \u2014 until Sinners<\/em><\/a> <\/em>came along. In writer-director Ryan Coogler\u2019s vampiric horror, Steinfeld plays Mary, a white-passing woman in the Mississippi South straddling her feelings for her childhood-friend-turned-long-lost-lover, Stack (Michael B. Jordan<\/a>) and her mixed racial identity. To bring the role to life, Steinfeld had to dig deep into herself and generations past.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s not often necessarily about yourself all the time. It\u2019s about the character,\u201d she tells me ahead of the film\u2019s release on April 18. \u201cBut with Sinners<\/em>, <\/em>I was constantly thinking about my situation, my family, my ancestors, my grandfather in each [scene] we were in and talking about.\u201d<\/p>\n

Steinfeld says she spent hours speaking with her mom, learning about their family history<\/a>, particularly her maternal grandfather\u2019s racial identity as half Filipino and half African American. But it wasn\u2019t just his identity that she uncovered; it was also his upbringing, his parents, and the broader lineage of her ancestors. It was a process she hadn\u2019t realized she needed \u2014 one that helped her make sense of things in her own life. \u201cThis role has brought me closer to myself, to my family, and my family history,\u201d she says.\u00a0<\/p>\n

It also helped that Coogler fostered an environment that encouraged this exploration. The essence of Sinners<\/em>, Steinfeld tells me, is community. For Mary, it\u2019s the absence of community that drives her arc. But it was the cast and crew that made Steinfeld feel truly accepted on her own journey. And while Steinfeld may not personally relate to Mary\u2019s struggles, she damn sure plays her racial complexity well. A compliment she attributes to ongoing conversations with Coogler, who helped guide her in portraying the tension of not being Black or white<\/a>.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cA lot of [my portrayal of Mary] had to do with Coogler,\u201d Steinfeld explains. \u201cThe way that he wrote her and the conversations he had [helped] guide me to play this character that lived in both worlds.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

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In Sinners<\/em>, Mary is introduced as heartbroken and beaten down, grappling with her mother\u2019s death, the white folks who terrorized her mother for being the child of a mixed-race couple<\/a>, and the surprise return of Stack. I liken Mary to Juliet from the Shakespearean classic. There\u2019s a sweet, aching pain to her. It\u2019s not just the loss of her mother or her mother\u2019s failing marriage that defines Mary, but the profound sense of disconnection she feels. It\u2019s a subtle, poignant nod to the concept of \u201cpassing.\u201d<\/a><\/p>\n

The thing about \u201cpassing,\u201d as Stack subtly explains in the film, is that how well <\/em>you blend in white society depends on who\u2019s looking at you. In the \u201830s, even the smallest hint of Blackness <\/em>changed everything from where you lived to where you worked and who you could date. These days, things have changed \u2014 thanks to landmark civil rights cases like Loving v. Virginia and more mixed-race families<\/a> from all over the world \u2014 but this racial caste system\u00a0 still very much exists.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Sinners <\/em>also offers a contemporary look into this racial dichotomy by subtly addressing the one-drop rule<\/a> \u2014 a 1662 legal doctrine that declared anyone with any Black ancestry, regardless of how small, to be considered African American. Mary\u2019s character is a reflection of how hypodescent dictates personal autonomy, notably the consequences of being subjected to it. No one would ever mistake Mary as a Black woman, but that doesn\u2019t mean she\u2019s white, either. Being a quarter Black\u00a0 means she\u2019s caught \u201cin the middle\u201d of this rigid racial classification and that none of her choices are truly her own \u2014 not the way she moves through society, not how she navigates relationships, not even the way she sees herself.<\/p>\n

Even Mary\u2019s transition into a vampire is a direct metaphor for how multi-racial individuals toe the racial line. Her transformation comes from a seemingly innocent (in her eyes) conversation when white partygoers try to enter Stack\u2019s bar. Since she is the only one in the room able to move seamlessly through white society, Mary offers to decipher the intentions of the white patrons \u2014 whether their approach is friendly or, as it often is, far more insidious. And it is insidious because just 10 minutes into the conversation, she\u2019s bitten. This privilege of \u201cpassing\u201d ultimately becomes Mary\u2019s undoing. And her white privilege<\/a> is the downfall of her Black community.<\/p>\n

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This privilege of \u201cpassing\u201d ultimately becomes Mary\u2019s undoing. And her white privilege is the downfall of her Black community.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<\/figure>\n

That\u2019s not to say vampire Mary is some unfeeling, cold monster bent on devouring every human in sight. Her emotional wounds aren\u2019t erased by her transformation; in fact, they\u2019re only amplified. It\u2019s this deep, unresolved grief and hunger for connection that drives her to turn Stack and try to bring others into the fold. \u201cShe\u2019s not out to kill,\u201d Steinfeld says. \u201cShe\u2019s just out to connect and to be closer. Her desires haven\u2019t changed.\u201d<\/p>\n

And though being a vampire allows Mary to regain autonomy \u2014 after all, who\u2019s going to tell the woman with superhuman strength and razor sharp fangs she can\u2019t be with a Black man in the 1930s South? \u2014 it\u2019s not necessarily a happy ending.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Or, at least, Steinfeld doesn\u2019t think so. \u201c[Immortality] is a daunting thing,\u201d she admits. I concur \u2014 neither of us declares we want to live forever. But for Mary, immortality means she can be with Stack, even if it means never seeing her mother or her best friend, Annie (Wunmi Mosaku<\/a>).\u00a0<\/p>\n

While I won\u2019t spoil whether Mary gets her happy ending (go watch the film and read our ending explainer<\/a> to find out!), it\u2019s clear that Mary is more than just a character to Steinfeld. And yes, Mary\u2019s journey in Sinners <\/em>doesn\u2019t offer easy answers to audiences nor to Steinfeld herself. But what is clear is how the role helped Hailee understand her own identity \u2014 both the seen and the hidden parts of herself.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Steinfeld hopes her next role, whatever it may be, is going to be even more complex and layered than Mary. <\/em>The actress is ready to move beyond familiar territory and take on challenging roles that push her boundaries. And honestly? I can\u2019t wait to see what she does next.<\/p>\n

Like what you see? How about some more R29 goodness, right here?<\/strong><\/p>\n

Wunmi Mosaku Promises Sinners Has \u201cA Happy Ending"<\/a><\/p>\n

5 Black Women On Their At-Home Ancestry Tests<\/a><\/p>\n

Being Undocumented Doesn't Excuse White Privilege<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Spoilers ahead.\u00a0 Hailee Steinfeld never fully understood her African American roots. She knew her father was Jewish and her mother Filipino, but Black American? Never crossed her mind \u2014 until Sinners came along. In writer-director Ryan Coogler\u2019s vampiric horror, Steinfeld plays Mary, a white-passing woman in the Mississippi South straddling her feelings for her childhood-friend-turned-long-lost-lover, Read More<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":533,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[12],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-531","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-fashion"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.habitaliaimobiliaria.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/531","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.habitaliaimobiliaria.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.habitaliaimobiliaria.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.habitaliaimobiliaria.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.habitaliaimobiliaria.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=531"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"http:\/\/www.habitaliaimobiliaria.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/531\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":536,"href":"http:\/\/www.habitaliaimobiliaria.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/531\/revisions\/536"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.habitaliaimobiliaria.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/533"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.habitaliaimobiliaria.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=531"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.habitaliaimobiliaria.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=531"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.habitaliaimobiliaria.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=531"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}