Here’s an interview Saoirse did in The Orange British Academy Film Awards. Screencaps will be up soon.

Video Link:
02.21.10 : The Orange British Academy Film Awards – Red Carpet

Film4 interview with Saoirse about the making of The Lovely Bones.

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2010 : Film4 Interview

I found some old interviews which I missed. Enjoy!

Here’s an interview of Saoirse and Susan Sarandon discuss The Lovely Bones and NewZealand.

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12.14.09 : 3news.co.nz

Saoirse and Rose Mciver talk about the pressures of working on an adaptation with MTV.ca. Thanks to green for the video.

Video Link:
01.12.10 : MTV.ca

Another interview of Saoirse and Rose.

Video Link:
01.19.10 : Terra TV

“I don’t think you could get anything worse than losing a child,” says Saoirse Ronan, frowning wisely as she perches on a sofa in a London hotel. “I think if my child died I would prefer it if I were dead.” Like any self-respecting 15 year-old, Ronan, who is up for a best actress Bafta for her lead performance as a dead child in The Lovely Bones, talks as if she were 20 years older. This preternatural articulacy, together with her extraordinary looks, combine to create a screen presence so potent you wouldn’t bet against her developing into one of the great film actresses of our time.

She already has quite a track record. In 2007′s Atonement, at only 12 years of age, she shone out from a cast that included Keira Knightley and Vanessa Redgrave; her intense portrayal of Briony Tallis earned her Golden Globe and Oscar nominations. She is even better in Peter Jackson’s new adaptation of the Alice Sebold bestseller, in which she narrates the life, murder and afterlife of teenager Susie Salmon in Seventies America.

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Indeed, so convincing is Ronan in both these films – with her flawless Thirties cut-glass English pronunciation in the former and soft East Cost American lilt in the latter – that it is a shock to hear her real voice, an Irish brogue so thick you could stand a spoon in it. “I am quite good at accents,” she says matter-of-factly. “I was actually born in New York. We lived there until I was three so I grew up watching Sesame Street and hearing the accent. You are a sponge at that age, soaking everything up.”

An only child – “just like Peter Jackson,” she points out, proudly – she was named after a figure in a painting bought by her aunt from a Maze prisoner, which now hangs on her own bedroom wall. Saoirse (pronounced Sir-sha) is the Gaelic word for “freedom”. After the stint in New York, her family returned to the backwaters of County Carlow in south-east Ireland, where they remained ever since. “We don’t even live in a village,” says Ronan. “It is just a house beside a river. There were only 50 kids in my primary school. It was wonderful.”

She got her big break by following her father, an actor, to auditions, and catching the attention of the casting directors herself. At nine, she appeared in her first Irish television drama, and has never looked back.

To get a feel for the Seventies provincial American setting of The Lovely Bones Ronan, who was born in 1994, listened to music and read teen magazines from the era. “It wasn’t a totally alien time for me,” she says. “I’ve grown up with my parents’ music tastes, listening to Fleetwood Mac and the Rolling Stones. I think it was a really colourful time, when people were experimenting with life.”

Just as colourful was her wardrobe in the film, all yellow bell-bottoms and Peruvian knitwear, a far cry from the sequinned jacket and skinny jeans ensemble she sports for our interview. “The clothes are extreme but I actually loved them,” she says. “To me, Susie was a little bit goofy so the colours were perfect for her.”

It is the goofiness and joy that Ronan pours into Susie Salmon that makes The Lovely Bones a moving, almost romantically happy story rather than the dark tragedy it might have been. Jackson’s film has been criticised for leaving out some of the more horrific elements of Sebold’s story, including Susie’s rape, but Ronan believes it was the right decision. “That scene would have overpowered the whole film,” she says, “and I wouldn’t have felt comfortable doing it. The rape scene is bad enough in the book but on screen it would have been an awful lot worse. You don’t need to see that.”

Rather, The Lovely Bones is a film soaked in colour, never more so than in Jackson’s fantastical depictions of the “in-between” realm from which Susie looks down on the world, but the colour that stays in your mind afterwards is the piercing blue of Ronan’s eyes. Despite mostly playing a girl who is dead, she radiates an almost celestial light from her pale face.

In the flesh, Ronan is willowy and gorgeous, but she wears her looks lightly. She is proud of her tough exterior (she played for the boys’ football team at primary school) and says she prefers characters like Susie who “don’t play the victim. Wimpy characters are not that interesting.” Yet, there is nevertheless a softness to her, and at times the grisly subject of The Lovely Bones was too much for her: “Near the start, I would come home from work and just cry,” she says. “It was upsetting to think this [rape, murder] happens to girls and children; it was hard to push away. But Mam and Dad are always with me and if I’m ever upset just to get a hug is good.”

The combination of her warmly protective parents and the rural anonymity of her hometown have clearly helped temper the potentially intoxicating effect of Ronan’s career. Despite having to drop out of secondary school – “Everyone knew who I was, it was just impossible” – she remains close to her old friends.

“I would never want to move to LA,” she declares. “I’ve seen kids get messed up [there]. They just stop being genuine people.” Though she has a wise old head on her shoulders, part of her, she says, is still very much a child: “I will always have a child in me. That is what Pete [Jackson] has got, what a lot of the directors I have worked with have. It is about knowing how to have fun – and that is something I always want to hold on to.”

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Saoirse Ronan is a remarkable actress and an equally remarkable young woman. Not yet 16 (she reaches that milestone in April), the Carlow girl has already amassed a body of work that would be the envy of her many older and more celebrated peers. Indeed not too many 15-year-olds can number the likes of Susan Sarandon, Michelle Pfeiffer, Keira Knightley and Vanessa Redgrave among their co-stars (and friends), nor have been directed by the likes of Peter Jackson, Joe Wright and Peter Weir; but such is the lot of Saoirse Ronan.

On closer examination, it’s perhaps not surprising that young Ms Ronan should have already made such a mark in the film business. The New York-born, Ardattin-raised actress is the daughter of actor, Paul Ronan (When the Sky Falls, Poker Nights), who once introduced his very young daughter to Brad Pitt when he was working on The Devil’s Own in 1996 (sadly, she has no recollection of the incident). Ronan senior has been there, done that and worn the t-shirt, so he’s a useful guide to his daughter as she makes her way in a business that can offer untold advantages but can be equally perilous for the unwary.

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However, unwary is certainly not an adjective you’d associate with Saoirse Ronan. On and off-screen, there’s a confidence and maturity about her that has seen her tackle a variety of difficult roles, not least her star-is-born performance as Briony Tallis in Atonement (2007). Keira Knightley might have had the starring role in the film but she and everyone else were blown off the screen by the Irish actress. Award recognition followed and, though Tilda Swinton pipped her to the Oscar, Saoirse is going to need all the fancy frocks she can lay her hands on this year following her superb portrayal of murdered teenager Susie Salmon in Peter Jackson’s upcoming adaptation of Alice Sebold’s The Lovely Bones.

Michael Doherty: You’ve been travelling the world recently promoting The Lovely Bones, so how does it feel to be back in Ireland again?

Saoirse Ronan: It’s really nice, I have to say. When we were flying back last night, every time the pilot mentioned Ireland or Dublin, I was like ‘Wahay!’ I’ve been to many amazing places recently but to be back home is something special.

Is the film being received differently in different territories, given that the plot hinges on a half-way world between earth and heaven?

It’s been positive wherever I have gone but some people have connected more strongly with the notion of that in-between world. In Tokyo, for example, they were fascinated by how beautiful that world was presented by Peter Jackson on screen because that’s a strong part of their religion. During the first 49 days of mourning, they go to this in-between place. I didn’t realise that until I went there.

Has it been an almost surreal time for you; travelling around the world, meeting celebs and staying in the fanciest hotel rooms?

The hotels are a bit samey so I’d prefer to be in a house, sitting by a fire! But a few years ago when Atonement came out I didn’t actually go to many award shows or things like that so I didn’t meet too many really famous people. This time I have; which has been really exciting!

Go on: drop a good name . . . !

Well, I met Meryl Streep, which was just exciting! It was one of those pinch-yourself moments. And I’ve had a few of those this year.

For a 15-year-old who has had so many pinch-yourself moments, you seem remarkably grounded. Has it helped that your dad is with you and in the business and do your friends keep you grounded, too?

Yes, everyone that surrounds me keeps me on an even keel. My mam and dad come with me everywhere I go and it really helps that dad understands the business. Filming is fine but when it comes to this kind of stuff and dealing with the press, he’s been great, because I need someone like that around me. And when I’m at home, my friends don’t really talk about my films that much, which separates the two worlds and makes it more of a normal life for me.

So far, Saoirse, it’s fair to say that you haven’t taken typical teenage roles but roles that require a level of maturity and are more demanding of our attention. Was that by luck or design?

When I started out I didn’t want to ever play a character that’s been done a thousand times over, and that’s still the case today. I also don’t want to repeat myself, so I have to keep all of that in my mind when I’m choosing projects and that’s only starting to really happen for me now. I’m reading scripts and the most important things for me are a great director on board and a well-written character on the page.

You’ve managed to pull off some convincing accents so far in your career. Are people surprised when they meet you and hear the Carlow girl talking?

Yeah, especially in the States! When Atonement came out, nobody knew who I was and they all thought that I was English. They were shocked by my strong Irish accent. That went for England, too, and sometimes in Ireland actually! They also seemed surprised that I was quite a happy person in real life! I think people know now where I’m from and that I do different accents so they’re kinda used to it.

We’re coming into the awards season again and you’re a bit of a dab hand at this after Atonement. You mentioned Meryl Streep earlier. How does it feel to be pitched against her for a BAFTA?

It’s really exciting. She’s one of my favourite actresses so to be in the same category as her, and the other actresses, is wonderful. They’ve all done fantastic work this year. Just to be in their company and to be nominated is fantastic. I don’t think such things would ever get boring or would ever be something you wouldn’t care about. It’s always wonderful when people recognise your work and a performance you have given, but it’s not why I do what I do.

Is there someone whose career you have particularly admired? I’m assuming that Jodie Foster, who also took on atypical roles when she was young and was always described as ‘an actress’ rather than ‘a young actress’, would be up there?

Yes, that’s something that’s important to me. Jodie Foster is a great example of that. I don’t really want to follow anyone else because everyone has to take their own career path; but to become as successful and as respected a film-maker as Jodie Foster is definitely something I’d aspire to.

I want to ask you about that key sequence in The Lovely Bones where Stanley Tucci lures your character into that underground hideout. Was that a difficult scene to prepare, particularly since off-screen, Tucci is famously such a nice guy?

It actually made it easier to play that scene knowing that Stanley and I got on so well and I’m glad we had such a good relationship. It meant we were very comfortable with each other on and off-screen. That made it easier for us to go to some intense and uncomfortable places sometimes. For me it’s all about imagination. Acting is always about completely giving yourself over to a scene and completely believing in what you are doing when the cameras start to roll. Luckily, I was able to break away from it in between takes and could go over and give Stanley a hug!

You’ve just finished filming Peter Weir’s WWII thriller The Way Back. What was it like to work with Colin Farrell on that movie?

It was really nice to have someone Irish on the set. Colin’s just a great guy anyway. He’s like this normal guy who happens to be an actor and he’s a great guy to have around. To have Peter Weir leading us through this journey, which was quite difficult sometimes because of the locations involved [India, Morocco, Bulgaria] was a dream. He’s so in control and yet so completely selfless.

I mentioned earlier about your atypical teenage roles. You’re teaming up with Joe Wright [Atonement] again for the lead role in Hanna, whom the director himself has described as ‘a cold-blooded killing machine’.

Is that how he described her?! Yep, she’s pretty much that. It’s about a 14-year-old girl who has been trained all of her life by her father to defend herself and she finds herself having to kill. It’s really interesting and a very different role to Atonement and neither of us has done an action movie before so it’s very exciting.

I’m guessing that an action movie means plenty of gym work?

Yes, I am in the gym. I have to work out six days a week but I actually really like it. I’m learning fighting techniques, too, but luckily my dad is brilliant at different types of martial arts.

How are the muscles coming along?

They’re sore! I had done some training in LA but a few days ago I had my first proper work-out in the gym, lifting the weights and all that, so my muscles are really sore today!

What do you miss most about Ireland when you’re away on these exotic locations?

I couldn’t say just one thing. I always miss my dog, Saffy. I love her and you can’t explain to your dog that you are going away for a couple of weeks to do press for a movie!

Tell the truth, have you ever Skyped Saffy?

Honestly, no. That would be stupid! I know some actors do that and others talk to their pets over the phone but I don’t do that. Apart from Saffy, I miss the food and the tea. I really, really miss the tea!

Finally Saoirse, if we were to meet in five years time, when you have reached the ripe old age of 20, what else would you like to have achieved in your career?

Well, I don’t like to have a set plan because whether you like it or not, things are going to change. I want to continue making movies and I also want to direct when I’m older. You never know what’s going to happen, but I’m looking at some really interesting scripts at the moment and they will all happen over the next few years. So hopefully in five years when we meet up, I will still be doing what I’m doing!

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SBMS Teen Press did an interview with Saoirse from the red carpet of the Virtuosos Awards.

Video Link:
02.07.10 : The 25th Annual Santa Barbara International Film Festival

Here’s an interview Saoirse and Peter Jackson, the director from the Lovely Bones, did with BBC News. Thanks to green for getting this vid.

Video Link:
02.12.10 : BBC News

Xposé posted an interview with Saoirse. Screencaps and the clip have been added to the gallery and the video archive.

Video Link:
02.11.10 : Xposé Interview

Thanks to M for the tip!

COVER STORY: EVEN FANS OF The Clinic and Proof were sideswiped by the rapid rise of young Saoirse Ronan. Before she whipped Atonement from under the noses of pros such as Keira Knightley and James McAvoy, the young actor, now 15, had done little else but play recurring roles in those RTÉ series. Here in Ireland, we like to hype our rising talent, but nobody saw that performance coming, writes DONALD CLARKE

Then, to add to the surprise, she turned out to have an engaging way with the media. Unlike some child actors – who deserve to be sent to bed with no Baftas – she seemed to have mastered the act of seeming (or, let’s be fair, being) impressively normal.

In London to promote her role in Peter Jackson’s The Lovely Bones , Ronan has positioned herself in front of a plate of pasta and a soft drink. Curled up on the extravagant sofa, she has the aspect of a teenager ready to watch Twilight while scoffing her tea. Unfortunately, she has to look at me rather than Robert Pattinson.

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Most 15-year-olds would find the interview process intimidating. I wonder how she manages to seem so relaxed. Did the media-training wonks get at her before her first junket? Of course, her father is an actor himself.

“Well my parents are still with me,” she says. “But no. I have only recently heard about the business of media training. I never had any. My dad did maybe give me a few pointers about how to answer question – and what subjects to avoid.”

Back in 2007, the attention that followed the release of Atonement – not to mention her subsequent Oscar nomination – must have come as a significant surprise. After all, the young Briony Tallis – the character Ronan played – only appeared in the first third of the picture.

Ronan is, however, the fulcrum around which The Lovely Bones spins. Based on a hugely popular novel by Alice Sebold, the film focuses on a child’s murder in a wiggy, spooky version of 1970s America. Following her death, Susie Salmon – suspended in a weird afterlife, whose slightly queasy decorations reflect her own teenage sensibility – watches as her parents, arguing and railing, seek to discover her missing remains. Meanwhile, the murderer, played by Stanley Tucci, continues to live right across the street.

Some actors can shake off such misery when they remove their costumes. Others carry it home with them.

“It did worry me sometimes – especially near the start of making the movie,” she says. “Sometimes I found it difficult to not imagine what a family like the Salmons would be going through. It’s hard. Their child is taken away and they just don’t know where she is. It’s awful to just have blood as memory and evidence. I would think of the other girls who were murdered in the story and I would get upset and cry. At the same time, I had to put that aside and carry on.”

Amiably gangly, with long graceful features, Ronan does come across like a typical teenager, but, as that answer clarifies, she has a very disciplined, focused approach to the work. True, she was born into the business. She was not, however, raised among a Barrymore clan or a Redgrave dynasty. When Saoirse Ronan came into the world, her dad, Paul, was supplementing his acting gigs with shifts as a barman and construction worker. They had recently moved to New York, but, as the Irish economy began to improve, elected to go home. The family now live in Carlow (though Ronan’s own accent has distinct hints of Dublin).

We instinctively, unfairly assume that all child actors are driven into the business by disappointed, club-wielding parents. Ronan does a good job of dismantling those preconceptions. “Mam and dad aren’t pushy at all,” she says. “Dad is an actor and he casually said to his Irish agent when I was younger: ‘See if you can put her up for a few things.’ When I was still very young, I got a part in The Clinic and then in Proof . I somehow got Atonement and it then took off.”

Ronan’s assurance in Joe Wright’s adaption of Ian McEwan’s novel was extraordinary. She had a stillness and a firmness that spoke of total immersion in the character. Where did that come from?

“I think it depends on the character; whether you get her straight away,” she says. “With Briony I just got her like that. And it’s funny. I’m not like her at all. But for some reason, I got her. With Susie, I didn’t really know what to do at first, and as I went along I discovered the character. I hadn’t read the book – I was just 13 when we started – but by the end I was the character. It was a journey.”

There are downsides to fame. In a recent Guardian interview – some details of which had to be retracted following calls from m’learned friends – she admitted that, following her brush with fame, school stopped being much fun. “When your schoolmates recognise you before they’ve met you, and the teachers do, too, it can make things very awkward and difficult,” she said.

She is now taught at home, but, the modern world being what it is, bullies and jealous nutters must still manage to whisper the odd word in her ear? No class of actor receives larger amounts of sniping on cyberspace than does the female teenager. A famous near-contemporary of Saoirse’s (no names) has, according to posters on the Internet Movie Database (IMDb), been pregnant by another teen star for about three years.

“Yeah, I read that too,” she says with a disgusted laugh. “There’s another friend of mine who they also said that about.”

So, does she manage to avoid the temptation to google herself? Even plumbers, solicitors and harbourmasters will find rude stuff about themselves if they look hard enough. (“He calls that a U-bend! What a fraud!”) Lord knows what it must be like as a teenage actor

“I have been foolish a few times and looked it up,” she says. “But, yeah, I try my best to avoid it – especially things like IMDb. An awful lot of the time people are jealous. Then again, maybe they just don’t like me. But they say very mean things. Now, I know it would be a lot worse being someone like Miley Cyrus, who really attracts that awful stuff, but I do get some nasty stuff. I’ll see something nice and think: that’s great. Then a few days later, I’ll see someone saying I’m not pretty or whatever. That’s not fair. Express your opinion, but don’t post it on the internet. Don’t be mean.”

Still, Saoirse Ronan is sensible enough to recognise that there are many more ups than downs to her current position. Two years ago, she even got to storm up the red carpet as an Oscar nominee. She was ultimately beaten to the Best Supporting Actress gong by Tilda Swinton for her performance in Michael Clayton, but it must have been a headspinning experience for a young girl.

“I’ll tell you what’s surprising. It’s really, really long. The ceremony is about three hours and the red carpet seems to last about two hours. So, that’s all very draining. But it’s really exciting. To meet all those stars is great. It ends up feeling quite surreal.”

And she has to pick a dress, of course.

“That is really, really stressful. I was already working on The Lovely Bones and I didn’t really have any experience. I was forced to organise a dress with a stylist, but, if that happens again, I will have more experience.”

It almost certainly will happen again, but, alas, not this year. Since the interview, The Lovely Bones has opened to distinctly iffy reviews and somewhat underwhelming box-office in the US. The critics were generally appreciative of Ronan’s performance, but, when the Oscar nominations were announced last week, her name was not on the list.

Yes, it can be a tough old business. Ronan spent a good six months of her life shooting The Lovely Bones in Jackson’s home country of New Zealand. Indeed, for a large part of the last three years, she has occupied caravans in odd parts of the world. Recently, she was in Bulgaria shooting The Way Back with director Peter Weir, and will soon begin work playing a teen assassin in Joe Wright’s Hanna . That will undoubtedly involve another jaunt. She must get a little homesick.

“Well it depends where you are,” she says. “When I was in New Zealand, it was the farthest I had been from home. It’s the farthest you can get from Ireland. But it felt like home. People are just so similar. I loved it there. Then I went to Bulgaria and Morocco, and I was very homesick. It’s funny how that works.”

Ronan really does come across as an intriguing amalgam. One moment she is bouncing round the room, acting out Peter Jackson’s directing style; the next she is calmly explaining the intricacies of discovering a character’s inner motivations. Which Saoirse reveals herself when she’s at home: the teen or the thespian?

“Oh I like being with my friends and playing with my dog when I’m at home. I like being outside. The usual stuff.”

A perfectly normal, Oscar-nominated teen movie star then.

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TEENAGE actress Saoirse Ronan misses her “best friend” as she jets around the world to walk the red carpet.

The ‘Lovely Bones’ star longs for her 13-year-old border collie Sassy when she’s away attending film premieres and movie sets.

The pet stays at Saoirse’s family home when the actress is filming abroad. “The toughest thing about shooting films or travelling is being away from Sassy. My family understand why I have to go away but try telling that to my dog,” said Saoirse, who was named a Virtuoso Award Winner at the Santa Barbara Film Festival in the US this week.

In 2007, Saoirse was nominated for an Oscar for her role in the film ‘Atonement’ but she could only think of her dog in Ireland after it went missing.

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“She ran away. She runs away a lot,” said Saoirse at the time.

However the loveable dog returned a month later and was reunited with Saoirse.

A portrait of Saoirse and Sassy is among a number of images from a forthcoming book by comedian Brendan Burke called ‘Shoot My Dog’.

“I did the picture of Saoirse and Sassy up at the Blue Cross animal shelter in Inchicore last year. You know straight away that there’s a huge bond between them,” said Burke.

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