It's a signature scene in "True Grit," both the original film that won John Wayne his Oscar and co-starred Kim Darby, and the new Coen Brothers incarnation of the classic Western, this one starring Jeff Bridges and screen newcomer Hailee Steinfeld.
Fourteen-year old Mattie Ross has met with the undertaker, dealt with her father's body, and now she's in the stables of Col. Stonehill, not stopping to grieve, her words rushed, blunt with righteous certitude. She is bent on avenging her father's murder, but first she must settle some business — strong-arming the man her father bought horses from into buying those ponies back. The back-and-forth between a genteel older man of business and a smart and exceedingly stubborn child tells us everything we need to know about Mattie.
"That was the audition scene, actually," says Hailee, also 14. "The Coens wanted to see if I could handle the bargaining, the way Mattie talks, her way of not letting her emotions get the better of her, not losing her temper. Because it was the audition scene, I had been working on it forever before we actually filmed it."
The haggling starts with condolences and quickly takes a hard turn to hard bargaining. "I admire your sand," the Colonel, played to unctuous perfection by Dakin Matthews, admits before countering Mattie's latest demand. The back-and-forth is whiplash quick.
"I will take it to law."
"You have no case!"
"Lawyer J. Noble Daggett of Dardanelle, Arkansas may think otherwise. As will a jury, petitioned by a widow and three small children."
"The give-and-take there was a lot of fun, and Dakin Matthews was incredible," Hailee recalls. "It's a hard scene, but funny. I almost cracked up."
Hailee was just another Southern California would-be child actress, an unknown bit player with a couple of TV credits, when Joel and Ethan Coen selected her to play Mattie in their "True Grit" remake. She would have to stop being a modern teenager, take herself back in time.
"I had to get used to the manner of speech. I had to go back through the script, after reading it, to figure out if I knew what everything meant, not just for my character or for me emotionally. Just what the words meant. You know?"
She would have to ride a horse.
"I used to ride horses, took classes and all a couple of years ago. So the only thing I needed for that was two weeks of riding lessons before we started filming."
She had to learn something about guns.
"I had no idea. My dad took me to a shooting range with a friends of ours who's an LAPD officer, somebody who knew something about guns, knew exactly what to tell us and everything."
And she'd have to share scenes with Oscar winners Bridges and Matt Damon, as well as the formidable Josh Brolin.
"I'd find myself, every once in a while, when they were shooting 'coverage' [close-ups, one-shots] of them, I'd lose myself in what they were saying and doing. It happened even when the camera was on me, but I'd snap out of that. When I knew the camera wasn't on me, I'd just get lost. What an incredible experience!"
How'd she do? She already has a nomination for a Screen Actor's Guild Award, and the film's rapturous reviews single her out: "Steinfeld is a real discovery and she manages to hold her own and prevail against actors performing at the top of their game," Pete Hammond wrote in Box Office Magazine.
"It's been crazy, but fun," Hailee says. "The best advice Jeff and Matt gave me was not to take any of this too seriously."
Still, she's living her dream.
"I'm finally on that film-career route, and it's what I want to stay on, hopefully for the rest of my life. I've experienced just enough of what goes on behind the camera to be interested in that, maybe down the road. We're taking this all one step at a time, trying to make smart choices."
The audio — recorded Dec. 15 — captures “Teen Mom” co-star Gary on the phone with a girlfriend named Ashley. He’s telling her how to stonewall reporters who got wind of a Dec. 14 incident where Amber allegedly beat him again.
