Hailee Steinfeld Promises a Lot More Gwen Stacy in 'Across the Spider-Verse'

In a recent interview about the premiere of the latest summer blockbuster Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse, Gwen Stacy actress Hailee Steinfeld expressed a feeling that has no doubt become familiar to all manner of Marvel actors – and their fans – over the last few years.

She told The Hollywood Reporter:

I was never given a script in its entirety…seeing it just a few weeks ago was like reading the script for the first time.

As such, Steinfeld had very little idea what the story of Across the Spider-Verse, the highly-anticipated sequel to the Academy Award-winning Spider-man: Across the Spider-Verse, was about until she saw it – she didn’t even record most of her lines in the booth with her co-stars. (As a matter of fact, there were some scenes she recorded from inside a closet.)

This was, however, better than last time, when she had to record all her lines solo.

Hailee Steinfeld Insisted On Being In The Recording Booth With Shameik Moore

gwen stacy hailee steinfeld with miles morales shameik moore across the spider-verse — Credit: Sony Pictures

For this sequel, Hailee Steinfeld was determined to have more face-to-face – or mic-to-mic – meetings with her co-stars, something she believes will shine through in the Across the Spider-Verse.

There’s nothing like that real-time banter and human interaction, and bless our sound department, but a little overlap never hurt anybody too bad. So it was really special to have the authenticity of a real-life conversation.

Much of acting does depend upon an actor’s ability to do something called “playing off of” their fellow actors – one might say a line differently depending on how the person they’re responding to expressed the thought. If you’re acting alone, it’s more like acting by yourself because the only reading of the lines you must respond to is your own interpretation.

Introducing other people to the mix makes the whole thing much more collaborative, making a scene feel more authentic. For these reasons, Hailee Steinfeld insisted to the producers of Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse that she gets to do some of her acting in the booth with her co-stars.

Gwen Stacy across the spider-verse hailee steinfeld with miles morales shameik moore — Credit: Sony Pictures

The first time around, I didn’t do anything with anyone else in the booth, but then I found out that [Miles Morales actor] Shameik [Moore] had. So I went straight to those filmmakers and I was like, “If we do this again, you better put me in the room.”

However, even though Steinfeld had more hands-on experience with the scripts and scenes this time, she was still surprised to be surprised by the final cut of the film when she saw it.

I don’t know how they do it, but they were new for me, too. There were moments where I jumped in my seat and laughed out loud and gasped loudly. So they do a good job of keeping all these surprises, reveals and exciting parts under wraps.

One of the things that she was most shocked by? Exactly how much Gwen Stacy’s story is featured in the film?

Across The Spider-Verse Has Much More Gwen Stacy and Hailee Steinfeld was Surprised

gwen stacy hailee steinfeld across the spider-verse — Credit: Sony Pictures

One of the things that actors who aren’t given a full script aren’t made aware of is where in the story their scenes will feature, which affects how much weight they have overall, in the film. An establishing scene at the beginning of the film will almost always be seen as more important than a flashback in the middle.

So for Hailee Steinfeld, her scenes being featured in the opener was big.

Realizing that this film does open with a lot of Gwen’s story was really special to see.

Reflecting on the scenes she did record, it did seem to make sense to Steinfeld that she became more of a main character for Across the Spider-Verse – there appeared to be much more detail and nuance to her story than there was in Into the Spider-Verse.

Knowing what I did throughout the process, we dug a little deeper into who she is and why she is the way she is, and it’s a big evolution from where she was in the first one. I’ve always loved this character, but I love her so much more in this film from what we learn about her.

So if you’re a Gwen Stacy fan, this one is obviously for you. You can see Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse in theaters now.

Which ‘Spider-Verse’ character would you like to see more of? Let Inside the Magic know in the comments.