Editor's note: The below interview contains spoilers for the series finale of Dickinson.
The Apple TV+ series Dickinson, which hails from creator Alena Smith, chronicles the coming-of-age story of one of the greatest American poets of all time — Emily Dickinson (played by Hailee Steinfeld, who also serves as executive producer). The third and final season, which concludes with its last episode this week in "This was a Poet -," takes place against the backdrop of the Civil War, where tensions are rising both across the country and within the walls of the Dickinson household. Emily attempts to hold onto her inspiration as well as use her work to try and bring hope to others — especially her own family and those she loves the most.
Ahead of the Dickinson series finale, Collider had the opportunity to speak with Steinfeld about working on the episode, the constant parallels between herself and Emily Dickinson, which scene she filmed last, and her interpretation of what that final moment with Emily in the boat truly means. She also talked about collaborating with Smith, who directed the final episode, and how she feels about where the relationship between Emily and Sue (Ella Hunt) ended up.
Collider: I feel like I have to just start by saying congratulations because you have this phenomenal show, plus Hawkeye plus Arcane. I don't know if you're aware that the internet has coined a term for all of these shows dropping at once, which is Hailee Steinfall.
HAILEE STEINFELD: [laughs] Amazing. I've heard this.
Watching Dickinson, though, I was so incredibly moved by the journey that this show has taken as well as the character. You and Alena [Smith] have been long-time collaborators on this series. What was it like to finally get to work with her as a director?
STEINFELD: You know, it's funny because I felt like... first of all, I always refer back to this moment that I had with Alena before we started shooting Season 1. Her and I, we sat and we had dinner and I remember we just sort of got right to it. We started talking all things Dickinson and everything she had in mind. It was our first time really sitting down together in person and I was so excited about everything that she had to say. And it was probably an overwhelming conversation at the time, if I remember correctly. But I remember she looked at me and she said — because we were talking specifically about how we were going to have multiple directors, which was not something I'd ever experienced, and maybe I was a little... I don't know, I guess I didn't really know how to feel about it.
I was excited by it, but maybe a little nervous, just with the newness of something like that. But she looked at me and she said, "We're going to have directors come and go, but you and I are here to stay. And I am here, I will always be here," and that's never not been the case. And so to have Elena officially direct our... my God, our season finale, our final season was such an incredible full-circle moment. You know she's been so heavily involved throughout the show and she's worked so closely with each director that it maybe almost felt like she was in ways... I mean, she was spearheading this whole thing from the very beginning. So in ways, I guess it felt like we had had slight introductions here and there to her in that director role, but it didn't necessarily land until she actually did it officially. And it was so amazing to be directed by the person who wrote and created this whole vision, and to have someone who had never directed before.
But here's the thing, and this is something I learned: as long as you have a very clear understanding and point of view of what it is you're saying, what it is you're making, the story that you're telling, you can direct anything. And Alena had all of that and more, by the way. Obviously, this is something she has lived with for a lot longer than I have, and that's been a long time. So it was really amazing to work with her on that level and have that be the way we closed out on the whole thing.
I get the sense that the two of you inspire each other on a lot of levels and it makes for really compelling television. I feel like I can't talk about the show without talking about Emily and Sue, and the way that you and Ella [Hunt] render that dynamic on-screen, which is so lovely and complex. It's interesting they don't really have any scenes together in the finale, but we get the love scene between them in the week prior, which feels like such a beautiful culmination of that relationship. How do you feel about where they land by the end of the show?
STEINFELD: You know I think it's such a beautiful, like you said, culmination of the whole relationship. We've seen the highest of highs with these two and the lowest of lows and everything in between. And a lot of that took place in this final season. There was a lot of conflict, a lot of confusion and frustration between the two of them, a lot of misstepping and tiptoeing around each other, and the circumstances and situations that they were in, that they couldn't avoid, and couldn't walk away [from]. With Sue, things are different now and there are things that can't be ignored or pushed aside, like having a child or being married to [Emily's] brother.
But I thought it was a very interesting choice that we have this final moment with them not in the season finale, but in the episode before. And I feel like with the final episode truly being about what Emily's journey this entire season has been, which is, well, hopelessness and hopefulness, I think that there's this strange sense of the fact that we see this... we have this moment with them in Episode 9 and not in 10, necessarily, I feel like maybe it's expected there, right? We expect to maybe see them one last time at the very end, but the ending of this show, it's so open-ended in the most beautiful, hopeful way that we see Emily heading towards her future.
We see her looking out at the horizon of all of the poems she hasn't written yet. And we know that those poems involve Sue. We know those poems involve her relationship with her family and the insane workings of her mind. Everything that we know her poetry to be, there's so much more of it to come, and that's coming out of what was known to be her most productive time as a writer. So I think there's this huge sense of hopefulness as we end this show, for Sue and Emily, for Emily and her life, and for everyone involved. Emily has spent this entire time trying to tend to everyone's wounds and for the first time, we see her tend to her own in this moment, which I think is really special.
You actually perfectly started answering my next question, which was about your interpretation of that final scene. We get the, I would say, iconic visual of Emily in the dress that she's known for, on the beach with her dog, and there's a lot that feels kind of metaphorical about it, her in the boat paddling out to sea. And I am curious what your takeaway was on the end, not just in terms of an ending for Emily, but an ending for the show as a whole.
STEINFELD: Yeah. I mean, firstly, I remember feeling... So that was the last — I can't believe they did this to me, but that was my last scene that I shot for the whole show. We had the pleasure of shooting the majority of this show chronologically, but you know, sometimes they always just pull a fast one and make you shoot the last thing on the first day. And that was not the case with this set because I was on my own.
I have spent so much time with my incredible cast and suddenly here I am as Emily and in a rather, yet again uncanny parallel, where I myself was questioning what the heck was going to happen next, looking out into the ocean hopeful as ever, but scared and anxious and excited. But she's heading towards the unknown, Emily, and she's done that so fearlessly throughout the entire journey of this show, and so I felt this moment of that.
I've said quite a few times through the last few seasons that she has this sense of fearlessness, which really set in for me at that moment personally. I've had a lot of moments making this show where I have felt so, almost too close and connected to what's going on in the scene that I'm playing through, that until I am able to step back and take it for what it is, [I] realize what my personal take on it is. It's hard for me to articulate. It's been a minute since I've thought about that final moment and we're about to relive it next week. But this ending as a whole, I think it's hopeful, which is what the whole journey of this season is. [It's] Emily questioning whether or not art can give people hope and whether or not the future can be better than the past. And I think that we're looking at yes as an answer, and in that final shot.
All three seasons of Dickinson are currently available to stream on Apple TV+.