At only 27, Hailee Steinfeld has established herself as a notable Hollywood star and a singer. The seemingly overachieving actress found her breakthrough in the film industry with 2010’s True Grit. While many actors only dream of it, Steinfield even made her entry into the Marvel universe with Hawkeye. The TV miniseries stars her as Kate Bishop, the world’s greatest archer on-screen.
Significantly, Steinfield flaunts impressive archery skills in reality. The accuracy of Kate Bishop’s archery finesse comes from Steinfield’s prior expertise in the sport. In the era of CGI, Steinfield is confident she could enact the role even without visual effects.
Hailee Steinfeld touted her archery skills
Hailee Steinfeld had not even touched a bow before Hawkeye but aced the role of being a fine archer. This displays her staggering commitment to her profession. Ultimately, the True Grit actress ended up enjoying the sport and would encourage others to practice it. Shedding light on her new-found interest, Steinfield spoke in the May 2021 issue of SFX Magazine,
“It’s a sport that anybody can play and start at any point in their life. It’s truly therapeutic and just really amazing. Not something I’d ever see myself doing. But here I am! And I absolutely love it.”
That’s not all, the actress even confided in her archery skills, claiming she excels at it. She added,
“As far as a bow and arrow goes, I’m pretty damn good!”
In Hawkeye, Steinfield’s Kate Bishop is compared to the Marvel superhero Clint Barton/Hawkeye, portrayed by Jeremy Renner in Marvel movies, and takes after him after he is presumed dead. In the comics, the duo fight crimes collectively as the dual Hawkeyes.
Hailee Steinfeld’s passion for archery
Before the ‘Starving’ singer got cast as Kate Bishop in Hawkeye, she acquainted herself with archery by surfing the internet and learning from videos of pro archers. Talking to Entertainment Weekly in 2021, Hailee Steinfeld recalled,
“By the time I got to the archery range for the very first time, I literally picked up the bow like I knew what the heck I was doing, loaded the arrow, and felt ready to go. … My instructor looked at me and was just like, ‘OK. We got work to do.'”
All the arrows showcased in the Marvel TV series are CGI but it’s hard to tell given Steinfield’s accuracy of the sports basics. She expressed her gratification for having learned the technicalities beforehand.
Interestingly, fans assumed that the young girl portrayed in Avengers: Endgame could be Kate Bishop in the upcoming Young Avengers, per Archery 360. There’s a possibility Hailee Steinfeld might reprise as Kate Bishop in the MCU, which only means that fans will get to see her archery finesse getting a cinematic debut soon.
