Emily Dickinson: celebrated American poet and sexually fluid iconoclast with a vocabulary borrowed fromClueless?
And for starHailee Steinfeld, it’s in perfect step with Emily’s essence.
“She didn’t belong in that time.
Credit: Apple
She had a very modern way of thinking and acting,” the Oscar nominee tells EW.
“I truly feel she paved the way for young female voices today.”
“She really was a voice outside of her time,” she explains.
“She was a modern consciousness trapped in a pre-modern era.
But Smith and Steinfeld want to undo that image and introduce viewers to something more vital and relatable.
All of that stuff is so juicy and fun.
She even found inspiration and strength from the poet’s story to carry over into her own life.
For Smith, that was a natural parallel to today’s younger generations.
Younger people today also resist those strict boxes when it comes to sexuality and gender,” she reflects.
And that is who the show is for at its most basic level.
“I don’t care about anyone who’s not a literary nerd,” quips Smith.
“It’s using the 1850s as a distorted lens for our world today.
Turns out existential dread never goes out of style.
Dickinsonhits Apple TV+ on Nov. 1.
