Hailee Steinfeld Says Sinners Reconnected Her to Her Black and Filipino Roots: “I Wish My Grandfather Was Still Here”

Hollywood’s latest supernatural thriller Sinners is stirring up more than just critical buzz. For actress and singer Hailee Steinfeld, the film has ignited a profoundly personal and emotional journey that has left her stunned, introspective, and longing for answers from a past she never fully explored until now.

The Oscar-nominated actress, best known for her powerful performances in The Edge of Seventeen and True Grit, as well as her voice role in the Spider-Verse films, is revealing a side of herself that we have never seen. And it’s all because of a story rooted in blood, history, and untold truths.

A Character That Shattered the Surface

In Sinners, Steinfeld plays Mary, a fiercely intelligent and emotionally haunted woman caught in the middle of a brutal conflict in 1930s Mississippi where vampires prey on an isolated town already suffocating under the weight of racism and generational trauma.

The film, directed by visionary filmmaker Ryan Coogler, takes a bold approach by mixing horror and history, blood and legacy, fear and identity. But for Steinfeld, the terror wasn’t just on screen.

“I’m so grateful for the deeply personal connection that each of us have [to the material],” Steinfeld said in a recent interview. “Mine being with my family history, with my grandfather, who I wish was still here to answer all the questions that I have that this movie raised for me and making this movie raised.”

Her voice cracked as she shared those words, echoing the weight of discovery. This was no ordinary acting role. This was something else. This was about family. About legacy. About race. And about roots.

An Ancestry She Never Fully Knew

What many fans may not realize is that Hailee Steinfeld’s maternal grandfather, Ricardo Domasin, was the son of a Filipino father from Panglao, Bohol, and an African American mother from California. Steinfeld grew up knowing pieces of this identity, but the reality of her background remained something of a myster, untill now.

Filming Sinners became a mirror that reflected questions she had never dared to ask. “This movie brought me closer to my roots in ways I never expected,” she admitted. “It gave me a hunger to understand where I come from. My grandfather’s life, the struggles he faced, the cultures he carried I feel like I’m only now beginning to comprehend what that truly means.”

She confessed that her grandfather rarely spoke in detail about his experience, and now that he is gone, those unanswered questions have become both a wound and a motivator.

A Haunted Set and a Haunted Soul

According to multiple cast members, the set of Sinners carried a chilling energy that often blurred the line between fiction and emotional truth. For Steinfeld, some scenes left her in tears. Others forced her to take long solitary walks to collect herself.

“Filming some of those scenes… I couldn’t help but think of my grandfather,” she said. “There were moments when it didn’t feel like acting. It felt like I was speaking for someone. For him. For generations.”

She added, “There were days I walked off set and cried not because I was scared of the horror, but because the history felt so real. The pain. The resilience. The silence.”

Rediscovering Her Voice Through Music

Adding another layer to her performance, Steinfeld also contributed an original track to the film’s haunting soundtrack. The song, titled “Dangerous,” marks her return to music after stepping away for several years.

“This song came out of a place of vulnerability,” she said. “It was like I was writing a letter to the past, to my family, to the people who came before me. I’ve never recorded something that felt so raw and urgent.”

The song’s lyrics are dripping with emotion and veiled references to identity, loss, and survival. Fans have praised it as one of her most mature and gripping releases to date.

Critics and Audiences Are Taking Notice

Sinners has stunned audiences with its bold storytelling, genre-blending approach, and unflinching confrontation with the horrors of both the supernatural and the real world.

Critics are praising Coogler’s direction as audacious and emotionally overwhelming, while Steinfeld’s performance is being hailed as one of the best of her career.

“She’s not just playing a character,” wrote one reviewer. “She’s channeling a story that’s been buried for generations.”

“This Changed Me Forever”

For Hailee Steinfeld, Sinners is more than just a film. It’s a spiritual reckoning.

“I feel changed by this experience,” she said. “It opened doors in my mind and my heart that I didn’t even know were locked. I wish my grandfather could see this. I wish I could ask him everything. But maybe, in some way, this movie helped me hear his answers.”

In an industry full of spectacle, Sinners stands out not just for its shocking imagery or compelling story but for what it unearthed inside the woman who helped bring it to life.

Hailee Steinfeld didn’t just play a role. She uncovered a legacy. One that’s still unfolding.