Hailee Steinfeld has 'Perfect' movie moment

It's not so bad having three movies out in three weeks.

"One, your friends believe you (when you say) that you were actually working that whole time," says Hailee Steinfeld, who can be seen this month in the hit Pitch Perfect 2, animated When Marnie Was There and action comedy Barely Lethal (in theaters and on demand Friday).

"Two," she adds, "you finally get to show people what you worked so hard on, and that's always exciting."

Since earning an Oscar nomination at just 14 as the feisty, resilient heroine of the Coen brothers' True Grit, Steinfeld has been one of the most sought-after young actresses in Hollywood: headlining a period adaptation of Romeo & Juliet, appearing with Mark Ruffalo and Keira Knightley in musical drama Begin Again and playing Kevin Costner's daughter in high-stakes thriller 3 Days to Kill.

In Lethal, co-starring Samuel L. Jackson and Jessica Alba, she gets to flex a whole different set of muscles: throwing punches and wielding weapons as teen assassin Megan, who fakes her own death so she can enroll in high school and have a "normal" life. But in reality, the transition from trained killer to carefree adolescent is no cakewalk.

Like her Pitch character, Emily — a wide-eyed college freshman who finds her voice as the Barden Bellas' youngest a cappella recruit — "they both have their heart set on something, and regardless of their quirks or talents, they won't hold back," says Steinfeld, 18, who's about to receive her high-school diploma. "There's something special in the growth of these characters, and I love that they are both kind of dorky, but that doesn't mean they can't do what other people can do."

Steinfeld trained for about a month before shooting Lethal with co-star Sophie Turner (Game of Thrones) and miraculously escaped with little more than scrapes and bruises. But more than playing an acrobatic, ax-throwing special agent, singing on Pitch with Anna Kendrick and Rebel Wilson may have been the bigger challenge.

"I didn't realize how difficult it was to sing, dance and act all at the same time. I've never done anything like that before," Steinfeld says. Not that her ineptitude shows: She closes out the musical comedy with the empowering Flashlight (written by Sia and Sam Smith) and is poised to take over the female-fronted franchise in the inevitable third movie.

Pitch also has helped open another door of her career: a recording contract with Republic Records, signed this month. Although she has dabbled in music in her spare time and played guitar in last summer's Begin Again, "doing this movie, I realized (that music) was something I couldn't live without."

Luckily, she has a close pal in singer Taylor Swift, having recently appeared in her all-star Bad Blood music video as a trio of stony triplets called "The Trinity."

Whether it's music or life advice, "I'm able to look up to her for just about everything," Steinfeld says. "She sets such an incredible example for everyone."

And with other famous friends such as Turner, Odeya Rush (The Giver) and Sarah Hyland (Modern Family), "I feel like I'm a part of a generation of women that completely support and empower each other, and that's something really special."