More power to her

Naturally, Steinfeld says that, for her, the song isn’t about “that” at all. It is about “self-empowerment”. She states it’s important to have “that self-love and that self-confidence”. Presumably it’s in such a spirit that in the single’s video, she wears a T-shirt that proclaims: “SELF SERVICE.”

Today she has upped the ante, greeting me in a graffitied biker jacket, black leather trousers and bright red stilettos. “I don’t know what I’m wearing today,” she confesses. “I thought I kind of looked like Hedwig for a second.” (As in Hedwig and the Angry Inch, a riotous glam-rock musical about a genderqueer chanteuse — she’s not far off.) She dwells on her jacket. “I love it. Look at the back. There’s a lot going on.” And indeed, sprayed on the back, Smurfette is quite graphically servicing a Smurf. Blimey. Has your mum seen this? “Yeah,” she shrugs; her mum is travelling with her, milling in and out of the room.

It’s up to us how to read Love Myself, but it’s certainly current. “Empowerment”, particularly “self-empowerment”, is the mantra of the age where modern female pop stars are concerned: it covers everything from cookie-cutter cutesiness (see Taylor Swift) to slut-dropping on a pole (see everyone). When not chirping on about love and sex, most chart hits will dwell on this self-affirmation instead; the ones that blend the two themes are a kind of gold dust. Take Nicki Minaj and Beyoncé’s recent hit Feeling Myself, which plays the same trick as Steinfeld’s song, but with deeper décolletages and filthier lyrics.

Because Steinfeld, despite the tweaks, remains squeaky clean. Even today’s outfit is topped off with her simple, brown wavy hair, very much the hairdo of a nice teenage girl from Tarzana, Los Angeles, while her made-up skin betrays a few youthful blemishes. Still — is the music about presenting an adult Hailee to the world?

“Umm, yeah, I’d say so?” she says, with a bit of doubt. “It’s funny, because I’ve never really felt like I’ve had to make any transition out of childhood. I’ve always just felt like everything I do is a stepping stone towards moving forward. But yes, I guess you could say that.”

Love Myself is a red herring. With her apple-pie-with-a-little-sauce vibes, Steinfeld is less in tune with Minaj and Beyoncé, more with the other towering pop star of the age, Swift. Which is no coincidence, as the two are firm friends. It’s true that, these days, it doesn’t narrow it down to say you are a friend of Swift’s — surely, by 2016, even Malala will have been welcomed into the fold. But Steinfeld can claim a certain ascendance, having starred in the infamous Bad Blood video with other top-tier pals. The clip is controversial: not only for being a not very good video, with no plot and a flurry of bad wigs, but for seeming to turn Swift’s positive statements on feminism into a large-scale catfight. I put this to Steinfeld.

Sing star: Steinfeld in Pitch Perfect 2 — her album deal was in the bag, she says, before the music comedy was released (Universal/Courtesy Everett Col/Rex Shutterstock)

“No,” she corrects me. “That video is about women being able to stand up for themselves. The best part of that whole entire video is that none of us could ever pull off any of that coming against each other in real life. I think that’s why we all had a lot of fun being able to dress up, and be, like, ‘I really wanna kick your butt... Just kidding, I really wanna hug you right now!’”

Swift’s “squad” of female friends is a positive thing, insists Steinfeld, a real network of young women who, yes, “empower” each other. “I think people view it as if we seclude ourselves,” she says, “but one thing that I love so much about being, I guess, part of it, is that it’s almost much bigger than what people see.”

You might be forgiven for thinking that Swift inspired Steinfeld to turn pop, but apparently the youngster was working on music beforehand. “I started making music the same time I got into acting [she first took classes aged eight]. It obviously became a side thing, because the acting moved a little quicker for me at the start.”

Likewise, you might think her recent appearance in Pitch Perfect 2, which follows the travails of an oddball but ultimately prize-winning a cappella group, might have given her a lift-off. Apparently not. She actually got her record deal last year, before the movie came out; she was placed at a dinner next to Charlie Walk, president of Republic Records, played him a few songs of hers she had on her iPod, and it was pretty much a done deal. Things have sped along quickly since then, with Steinfeld hothoused with some of the best song-writers in the business.

“[Walk] told me it would possibly take one to two years to develop me as an artist, to find my sound. I was thinking, I’m in no rush, but there’s no way it’s going to take that long. I don’t have that long in me. It’s got to happen.”

Steinfeld’s career has been a mix of patience and haste. She first became passionate about showbiz aged eight, but was told by her mother that she would have to do a full year’s worth of acting classes before she considered sending her photograph off to agencies (pure LA). Apparently, she had already tried out a fair few passions, and her parents were getting tired of investing in tennis, or riding, only for the interest to fade. “I just bounced around too many things, too often,” she recalls.

A shot at the Oscars: Steinfeld was nominated for her performance as Mattie Ross in True Grit

She stuck the year out, though, and her photo was promptly sent out to 10 agencies: one replied. From that, she started doing print adverts, then TV ads; then, out of nowhere, she landed the True Grit role. “From, like, a Kmart commercial to a Coen brothers movie — that’s quite a jump!” she says, still delighted. “Hell, yeah!”

Within a year of filming, she had the Oscar nomination, and even a prestigious fashion campaign with Miu Miu. She is now a proper show-business veteran. There’s a cute clip where the talk-show host Ellen asks Steinfeld about attending this year’s uber-fashion gala, the Met Ball. “Was it your first?” Ellen asks. “Actually, it was my fifth,” Steinfeld replies.

For now, though, she is entirely focused on pop: she hasn’t made a film in a year, and has only a couple on her slate: one is Pitch Perfect 3, which she confirms is happening. She also found the time to graduate from high school. (College remains a vague option.) First up, she promises a new single, then an album. I ask what other themes she’s exploring in her songs. She mulls it over: “I don’t want to keep using the word ‘empowering’, but sort of sassy, kind of fun.”

Empowerment is, it seems, the name of the game. I wonder what exactly it entails. “I guess, as long as it’s for you, it can be anything,” she offers. Even someone quite different from her, like Rihanna, and her more aggressive, overtly sexual act?

Yes, she says. “I am just obsessed with her all the way around.” Expressing yourself through clothing, any clothing, is a “real self-empowerment move”, she declares. Just ask those Smurfs.

Love Myself is out on Oct 30 (Island Records)