Hailee Steinfeld Takes Us Behind the Scenes of The Cab's Music Video Shoot
Hailee Steinfeld did what most teenage girls do when they like a band: she tweeted about it. But the Academy Award-nominated actress isn't like most girls, and once The Cab's lead singer caught word of her fandom, he responded to her and said hello.
Alex DeLeon and Hailee became fast friends, and he asked her to star in his video for "Endlessly," the band's new single. The video premieres tomorrow, but in anticipation of the debut, Hailee is sharing a few iPhone photos that she snapped on set with us. We spoke to her and Alex about the meaning behind the music video and their plans to keep working together.
- Photo courtesy of Hailee Steinfeld1/6
When did you two first meet?
Alex DeLeon: "A few years back, I went and saw True Grit, and I was totally in awe of Hailee's performance. So I was always a huge fan of hers, and a few years down the line, I started getting message from my fans that Hailee was tweeting about how much she liked my band and the song 'Endlessly.' It was the coolest thing to hear. We talked over Twitter and we became friends. She came out to one of our shows in L.A., and I dedicated 'Endlessly' to her. I reached out about the music video, and she made one of our dreams come true by doing it."
Hailee Steinfeld: "I had been listening to the brand for a really long time. A couple of months ago, one of their songs came on the radio and I tweeted lyrics to the song. Alex tweeted me back, and before I knew it, I was shooting a music video for them!"
- Photo of Hailee in the video for "Endlessly"3/6
What was the experience of filming this video like for you, Hailee?
Hailee: "I'm not extremely familiar with the whole music world, but it's not the basic kind of pool party video. The lyrics to the song are so incredible, and the video tells the story. Music is a huge part of what I do as an actor, and being able to film this was such a cool experience. I've never really done anything like it."
- Photo courtesy of Hailee Steinfeld4/6
**What inspired the song? **
Alex: "'Endlessly' is the ultimate love song. It's saying that you'll love someone forever, and accept his or her flaws. We wrote the song with Bruno Mars. Everyone wants to be perfect to the people that they love. You can just be yourself and that's why the people love you in the first place."
- Photo courtesy of Hailee Steinfeld5/6
Do you have any more collaborations planned?
Hailee: "Hopefully! Alex and I have been going back and forth with ideas for a while now, and we've become really good friends. He's very supportive of what I do, and I'm so fascinated by what he does. Hopefully somewhere down the line, we can work on something together."
Alex: "We have a big brother, little sister relationship, and we talk about collaborating all of the time. I can't really say what yet, but there are a lot of surprises coming."
- Photo courtesy of Hailee Steinfeld6/6
How did you capture the message in the video?
Alex: "There are so many videos that show a typical love story, and we didn't want to do that. So we went in a different direction. In the video, Hailee is struggling. There's this box and all of these keys hidden around the room. She's trying so hard to open this box, and as it won't open, she gets more and more frustrated. Finally, she gives up and stops looking. And then, at the last second, she finds a ring in the ground where she threw the box. The ring represents love. The moment you stop searching for love is the moment you're going to find it. It's the moment that you exhale and let love come to you—that's when the best love comes."
"Because the video wasn't a love story, it based on just one person, and we needed someone with acting chops. The whole video is centered on emotion and facial expressions, so Hailee was actually one of the only people probably in the world who could've pulled it off."






