TORONTO – Everyone has a word or phrase they probably use too much. For example, my friends will tell you I’m prone to use the word “literally” in conversation way too often. Or, when doing interviews, to say “I’m curious” about three or four times to a subject (eke). She might be embarrassed to read it, but Saoirse Ronan has the distinctly British habit of saying “brilliant’ during conversation just as much as I say “literally” (perhaps more actually). It’s partially because she’s just coming out of her teenage years, but it also a sign of her impressive enthusiasm regarding her work.

Ronan, a former best supporting actress nominee for “Atonement,” was in Toronto this past week for the world premiere of Neil Jordan’s “Byzantium.” The vampire flick premiered to positive reviews at this year’s fest and was snatched up by IFC Films only a few days after its debut. Originally intended as a stage play, this original story from the mind of writer Moria Buffini (“Jane Eyre”) tells the tale of two female vampires from the beginning of the 19th Century who have been traveling around Ireland (and who knows where else) trying to survive. Unlike other vampire flicks the rules are different for the bloodsuckers in “Byzantium.” They aren’t super-strong. They can’t fly or jump tall buildings with a single bound. They don’t burst into flames when hit by sunlight. They aren’t cold to the touch. Nor are they allergic to garlic or scream in pain at the presence of a cross. They are just like you and me except they just happen to be immortal thanks to sucking the blood of, um, you and me.

“Byzantium” features Ronan and the always delightful Gemma Arterton (“Clash of the Titans,” the underrated Tamara Drewe”) as her “sister.” The superb cast is rounded out by Sam Riley (probably the most commercial film he’s made so far), the always fantastic Tom Hollander, a too skinny for comfort Caleb Landry Jones, ready to explode Thure Lindhardt, a transformative Warren Brown and everyone’s favorite new stock villain actor, Johnny Lee Miller.

The night after the premiere Ronan sat down to talk about the vampire world of “Byzantium,” the appeal of starring in a movie adaptation of Stephenie Meyer’s “The Host” and Kevin Macdonald’s intriguing “How I Live Now.”

HitFix: During the premiere last night, there was a moment when you walked off the stage and someone yelled out ‘I love you!’ You got a big laugh when you yelled back, ‘I love you too!’
Saoirse Ronan: I know. That is so nice.

Does that happen often? Is that surprising to you?
I have that happen a bit, but I don’t know. IWhenever anyone says that I think it’s so lovely. It’s such a nice thing for them to say and it sounded like she really meant it as well, so it was nice.

Continue…

Indiewire: Neil Jordan On The Influences Of ‘Byzantium,’ And Why He Cast Gemma Arterton & Saoirse Ronan

Hillie     Sep 13th, 2012     Interviews     0 Replies

For a director who made his name with the excellent adaptation of Angela Carter’s gothic deconstructed fairy tales with “The Company of Wolves” and his big studio breakthrough with “Interview with the Vampire,” it’s been a while since Neil Jordan traveled into more horrific territory. There were genre elements to his last film, “Ondine,” but that was more of a warm, romantic fable (and a very underrated film). It’s really been thirteen years since 1999′s “In Dreams,” when Jordan tackled the darker side of the supernatural world.

But “Byzantium,” the director’s latest project, certainly marks a return to that kind of territory with a vampire tale from writer Moira Buffini (“Jane Eyre”) that stars Gemma Arterton and Saoirse Ronan as a pair of vampires causing havoc in a British seaside town. And when we spoke to him in Toronto, where the film premiered this week at TIFF, Jordan says that the film was in a way, a conscious decision to return to his spookier roots.

Continue…

← Older posts

Newer posts →