Thanks to Caro for the link.

Saoirse (pronounced “sear-sha”) Ronan began her acting career at the age of 9. In 2007, she received worldwide acclaim for her portrayal of the 13-year-old Briony Tallis in Focus Features’ Atonement, which was her first film with Hanna director Joe Wright. The performance earned her Academy Award, BAFTA Award, Golden Globe Award, and Critics’ Choice Award nominations, among others. She was honored with Irish Film and Television (IFTA) Awards for both Best Supporting Actress and Rising Star.

She subsequently won the IFTA Award for Best Actress, honoring her performance as Susie Salmon in Peter Jackson’s The Lovely Bones. The portrayal also earned Ms. Ronan a Critics’ Choice Award; an award from the Santa Barbara International Film Festival; and a BAFTA Award nomination for Best Actress, among other honors.

Among her previous screen credits are Gil Kenan’s City of Ember, with Bill Murray, Tim Robbins, Toby Jones, and Harry Treadaway; Amy Heckerling’s I Could Never Be Your Woman, opposite Michelle Pfeiffer and Paul Rudd; Bill Clark’s The Christmas Miracle of Jonathan Toomey; and Gillian Armstrong’s Death Defying Acts, in which she starred alongside Catherine Zeta-Jones and Guy Pearce.

Ms. Ronan was most recently seen in Peter Weir’s The Way Back, starring alongside Ed Harris, Jim Sturgess, and Colin Farrell. She has wrapped production on Violet & Daisy, from Academy Award-winning writer/director Geoffrey Fletcher, with Alexis Bledel and James Gandolfini.

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Thanks to Caro for pointing out.

Here are Hanna press junkets by Talking Pictures TV and Screen Slam.

LOS ANGELES—In her new film, Hanna, Saoirse Ronan has hair so blond it appears white, and bleached eyebrows from beneath of which her eyes are a startling blue. She looks like an ethereally lovely forest sprite—the kind that snaps people’s necks like chopsticks and has exquisite aim with guns, knives, and anything else that’s handy. “I just missed your heart,” her Hanna says sweetly when she hasn’t quite managed to kill. Then she finishes things off.

In real life, in an L.A. hotel room, the 16-year-old Irish actor is explaining how to pronounce her first name. She is slender, her eyebrows are now visible, and she doesn’t look particularly dangerous. “Well, there’s a few different ways to pronounce it, actually,” she says thoughtfully. “ ‘Seer-sha’ is how Irish people would pronounce it, usually. But I would pronounce it ‘Sir-shuh’, like inertia.”

Inertia doesn’t exist in Hanna (which opens in Vancouver next Friday [April 8]). The titular heroine lives with her ex–CIA agent father, Erik (played by Eric Bana), in a cabin in a Finnish forest very near the Arctic Circle. When she’s not shooting elk with a bow and arrow and expertly removing steaming innards, she’s engaged in intense combat games with her father. Guns are frequently pointed.

“It was cold,” she says, recalling filming in Finland. “It was cold; it was cold; it was cold. One day it was minus 30 degrees. Fantastic. Eric and I, for the whole week or two that we were there, we were wrapped in a bit of deer fur and we had cloth around our hands, but they were fingerless. And we had to fight in this. We fought on a frozen lake on the third day. But it’s beautiful there, one of the most beautiful places that I’ve ever been to. It’s like a winter wonderland.”

Familial bliss is interrupted, however, when Hanna decides she’s ready to face the dangers of the outside world and embarks on a secretive mission for her father. Shortly thereafter she’s being hunted from Finland to Morocco to Germany by assassins led by an intelligence agent (Cate Blanchett) with a deceptively friendly Texas accent.

While preparing to kill or be killed, Ronan was no slouch herself. “I trained in martial arts and stick fighting and weapons,” she says. “I learned more skills than I’ve ever learned on a film. I don’t necessarily remember them all, but still.”

Before Hanna, Ronan hadn’t needed to learn the proper way to slit a person’s throat. Playing the devastatingly deceitful little sister in Atonement and the loquacious murdered teenager in The Lovely Bones, she won many awards. “I like characters that I’m thinking about for ages and ages after I’ve finished reading the script,” she says, “Usually ones that are different from me or something that I’m not or wish I was. Or maybe a piece of me that I haven’t brought out yet and I want to explore.”

She looks decidedly believable exploring her lethal side in Hanna. “Do I?” she asks. “Good. That’s good.”

Picking up a nearby butter knife, she bangs the end hard on the table.

“Ha! See, I’m getting the passion now to fight again. Better take this away from me.”

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Your role in Hannah is completely different than any other role you have done. What did you learn about yourself personally or as an actress?
Hanna is a simple minded fresh young girl and because she’s not judgmental or prejudiced at all and that certainly made me think about things in a different light. As an actress it felt like a collaboration between me and Joe Wright and this film helped us develop into a terrific working relationship.

You mentioned you worked with Joe Wright previously. How was the experience working on this movie? Did you find yourself exploring the subject matter differently [than when you worked on Atonement]
We’ve always have a really good relationship, and he never treated me like I was a kid, and he certainly didn’t when we did Hanna together. I can see in myself that I have definitely grown as an actor and I think he can see that too. I guess it left us with more creative freedom, and I was able to try more creative things and I was a little bit more in control of what I could do.

What do you feel you learned working with such a great cast?
We really did have a terrific cast on this movie, and everyone did something really interesting with their performance. With Cate [Blanchett], she is a wonderful actress and to observe how she works on set is quite fascinating. She is very focused and professional. You can tell she really cares about what she does and as a young actress that is a great thing to see.

What attracted you to this role [in Hanna] in the first place?
The fact that it was different and more challenging. And the fact that I got to do more physical activity. I’ve never gotten to do [a lot of physical activity] before in a movie and I’ve always been pretty athletic and I thought it would be fun.

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What is it that you look for when you choose a project?
You certainly have to think about the entire project, if it’s a well-developed script, etc. For me, it’s quite an impulsive thing, and I can feel it in my heart if it’s something that is interesting and something I’m passionate about. I always find if I read a script and I’m still thinking about it hours and hours later, it must be something that I’m interested in. I also like strange and dreamlike stories. I think it’s good to do reality type things but its’ good to have an escapism too.

How much of the stunt work did you do on your own?
I pretty much did everything. Unless there was something really really dangerous that my insurance wouldn’t cover, I did everything myself.

What was it like traveling from location to location?
It was great. It’s always wonderful to travel. I have been lucky on the films I have worked on so far because I’ve gotten to go to some really interested places. This film we were in three places—Finland for the exterior stuff, and we shot in Germany and Moracco as well.

How did you handle the big questions presented in the film?
It all comes down to imagination and the being of a person. I found it was a bit tricky at first, but it was quite important to wipe my own personal memory, because Hanna never went through those things and never really lived a life, and I found that [wiping my memory] helped to portray the innocence and naivety of her.

Since you worked with Joe Wright several years ago, did you find filming Hanna was easier because you were used to his style?
I think it was easier, but it was never difficult to work with Joe. We understand each other very well, and he has even gotten a bit braver as a director. It was nice to work with him again, and I like the idea of working with the same people over and over again. I had never done and action film before and neither had he, so it was great to go in that direction together.

Would you be interested in a sequel? What do you see in the future?
I think it would be really interesting to do a sequel and I think it is something they are talking about, because the reaction has been so fantastic. If they were to develop the character as well as they did in the first one then it would be a great thing to do, but I don’t think I would want them to do it just so they can make money off the sequel….I would like to go to college in a few years and make a Irish film in Ireland, I haven’t done that yet.

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“That is a question that I ask myself because a lot of people have been saying that to me,” Ronan says regarding “The Hobbit” buzz. “But nothing is confirmed or anything.”

“Well, I know they are introducing new characters in the film,” Ronan notes. “And if they ask me to play a part I’d jump at the chance. I’d love to work with him again. It would be great to work on ‘The Hobbit.’ Everyone is so excited about it.”

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Thanks to M for the heads up!

You may know her as the girl from Atonement, or the girl from The Lovely Bones. Two roles which played up her innocence, with disastrous results. In her new film, HANNA (Focus Features, in theaters April 8th), Saoirse Ronan gets to play a character going after disastrous results, with her innocence coming out in absolutely brilliant ways. Hanna’s theme is two parts fairy tale, one part deadly assassin, much like River Tam before her. Saoirse was kind enough to sit down with Pop Bunker at Friday’s junket, and chat about her life and the movie. Part one of the interview is the personal side, with part two coming later in the week.

Pop Bunker: So, from your accent, you’re from (long and drawn out) Ireland?
Saoirse: Yes. Seemed like a bit of a guess. I was actually born in New York, I was born in the Bronx, as you can probably tell from my accent. Headed back to Ireland when I was about three years old, cause my mom and dad were born and Ireland, they’re fully Irish, and they wanted to raise me there. Y’know there family is there, lots of their friends and stuff. So we moved back when I was about three and a half and I’ve been there ever since. It’s handy because I’ve got the dual citizenship, which is really handy…

PB: You still live in Ireland, that’s so cool.
Saoirse: Yeah, I live in the country, which is fine. I love Dublin though, I really like the city.

PB: My college roommate goes to UCD (Ed: shout-out to Olga!)…
Saoirse: Yeah there’s UCD, DCU, and Trinity. I wouldn’t mind going there.

PB: Do you think you’ll go to college?
Saoirse: I would. I’m not sure…well I have a few ideas, maybe in New York somewhere, or in Ireland. I think if I were in Ireland I’d go to Dublin. But you never know, we’ll have to wait and see. But college is definitely something that I’d want to do. As I’m sure you know, the experience tends to be great, definitely something that you don’t want to miss out on.

Read the rest of the interview at here and here.

Thanks to M for sending me the link of this interview.

While it’s been nearly four years since they last worked together on ‘Atonement,’ which was her breakout role that led to an Oscar nomination, Saoirse Ronan developed a good chemistry with director Joe Wright that they are back together in a film that a departure from what they did previously.

With ‘City of Ember,’ ‘The Lovely Bones,’ and most recently ‘The Way Back,’ Ronan has grown as an actress and with her latest project, Wright’s arthouse assassion flick, ‘Hanna,’ she put in more work physically that she expected.

Co-starring Eric Bana, Cate Blanchett,, Jason Flemyng, Tom Hollander, and Olivia Williams, Hanna (played by Ronan) is a teenage girl. Uniquely, she has the strength, the stamina, and the smarts of a soldier; these come from being raised by her father (played by Bana), an ex-CIA man, in the wilds of Finland. Living a life unlike any other teenager, her upbringing and training have been one and the same, all geared to making her the perfect assassin. The turning point in her adolescence is a sharp one; sent into the world by her father on a mission, Hanna journeys stealthily across Europe while eluding agents dispatched after her by a ruthless intelligence operative with secrets of her own (played by Blanchett). As she nears her ultimate target, Hanna faces startling revelations about her existence and unexpected questions about her humanity.

While promoting the film in Los Angeles for its April 8 release date, Ronan spoke to Blackfilm.com about working on the film, the training she went through, and possibly doing ‘Snow White.’

When you were approached for this film, how much training did you go into it afterwards?
Saoirse Ronan: Well, I trained for a couple of months before we started shooting. And I did a little bit over in LA. I did a couple of weeks just to get started and so the head stunt coordinator whose name is Jeff Imada and he’s brilliant, would know what my energy is like, my strength. What I was capable of, things like that. And then a member of his team and I went back to Ireland and we would train in the gym for about two hours a day, which I did have to get used to. And we trained in martial arts and stick fighting and weapons training and things like that. Yeah. So I learned quite a few skills. More skills than I’ve ever learned on a film. I don’t necessarily remember them all but still.

You and Joe have both had interesting paths since you last worked together.
Saoirse Ronan: Yeah.

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Did you notice a big difference in your relationship now as director and actor?
Saoirse Ronan: You know, not really, which is fantastic. We had a great relationship on ‘Atonement’. I mean I was younger. I was about twelve when I did that. But I don’t think there was difference this time because Joe never really treated me like I was a kid. And he used to go- he was a bit freaked out with me. So he never really treated me like a kid. And then when we did ‘Hanna’ together and that relationship just developed even further. And I guess we’ve gotten closer; and it really felt like a collaboration on this film, you know. It felt like, as you said, we were both going in this new direction. And it kind of did feel like a journey. And we were taking a risk by doing it. But the fact that we were doing it together was exciting.

Did you notice his growth as a director? Did he change? Because that’s a very different film from anything he’s done.
Saoirse Ronan: I think he took more risks on this film. I know I’ve said that already. But I mean when it came to cinematography and even the music he took more risks. I mean just being involved in this film he introduced new layers to the story and brought a fairy tale element to it, as well. Which we never really see with action films. So he’s made this into a sort of mutant film. A collaboration.

Were you in the hotel room one night and you just decided to bleach your eyebrows and everybody went with that? Or did you contribute to the look of your character?
Saoirse Ronan: That’s not how it works at all. I like my dark eyebrows. And it was Joe’s idea. And Ivana Primorac’s who is hair and makeup, to basically bleach me out and almost disguise me as an animal in a forest. So I think it’s quite interesting that I don’t really leap out when you see me in the forest. I blend in. and we were going for the physicalities similar to a wolf, really. A white wolf. I think it came off pretty well. But, no, I didn’t have the fantastic idea to bleach my eyebrows. But they did. Lovely. And they did bleach them. And they bleached the tips of my eyelashes as well. So it was simply just my eyes, my blue eyes, that popped through. Yeah.

You’re young. You’re a teenager. What is it about your intense roles? I can’t see my sixteen year old going, ‘Hey, I want to play this.’ So what appeals to you? You don’t seem to take light roles? They’re quite serious.
Saoirse Ronan: Well, I haven’t done so far just because these are the ones that have really interested me. And it’s sort of- it’s a bit impulsive when I read a script and decide that I would like to play this character. I mean, of course, the director has to want you to be involved, as well, and whatever else. But I like characters that interest me that I’m thinking about for ages and ages after I finish the script. And usually ones that are different from me in some way or maybe something that I’m not or wish I was. Or maybe a piece of me that I haven’t brought out yet and I want to explore a little bit.

Did Joe actually approach you on this? Or did you read the script and then- was he involved in the process with that?
Saoirse Ronan: He wasn’t involved when I got involved. They didn’t have a director when they sent me the script. And I really liked it and I really responded to it. And I went to meet (Sounds Like: John Lines) from Focus. And he was saying that he didn’t have a director yet. And the first person that popped into my head was Joe. So I wasn’t actually confirmed to play the part yet. We were just kind of talking about it. We were in the no man’s land. And so I couldn’t just go, ‘Oh, I can’t wait to do this movie. It’s going to be wonderful.’ Because they hadn’t actually offered it to me yet. And so we were talking about it. And he said, ‘Well, we don’t have a director.’ And I said, ‘Well, why don’t you send it to Joe Wright? I’m sure he’d be interested in it.’ and they said, ‘Yeah, we were thinking of that.’ and then I said, ‘Well, just tell him I’m doing it.’ I had never been so cheeky before. It just kind of came out. And then after that I thought, ‘Oh, God. I’m not going to get the part now that I said that.’ but Joe rang me a few days later and told me to get my butt in the gym and get training.

Can you talk about filming in Finland?
Saoirse Ronan: It was cold. It was cold. It was cold. It was cold. One day it was minus thirty degrees. Fantastic. So you think you’re bad here with the rain. No it was very, very cold. And everyone had their puffer jackets on and their snow boots and their hats and their gloves. And Eric and I, for the whole week or two that we were there, we were wrapped in a bit of deer fur. And we had cloth around our hands but they were fingerless. So we could feel the cold. And we had to fight in this. And I mean I don’t know what it was like for him, but for me it was tough. It was cold and my muscles wouldn’t work properly or anything. I mean we fought on a frozen lake on the third day. But it’s beautiful there and one of the most beautiful places that I’ve ever been to. And I don’t know if any of you guys have ever been there but it’s like a winter wonderland. It’s so enchanting. And just beautiful. It really is.

In one of the scenes, I’m assuming you didn’t really have your arm inside a dead reindeer?
Saoirse Ronan: Oh, I did. Yeah. That was me.

Oh, no. So how did that all happen?
Saoirse Ronan: I think it was a real deer. I don’t know whether I should tell you guys that. But I think it was a real deer. It wasn’t killed for the film or anything as far as I know. Don’t put that in. but anyway it was a real deer. And they put fake intestines and guts and stuff into it. And put fake blood over it. And they had this machine. Like the camera’s there and then there was the deer. And then they had a machine right here that would let out steam so it looked like the deer was dying. It was very interesting to see. But my hands were in goo the whole time and it was cold on my fingers and then we went straight into a fight.

After training for the film, how do you think you would do in a real fight?
Saoirse Ronan: I think with my friend Christopher who I’ve grown up with my whole life. Well, obviously, and I think I could perform quite well. But in an actual fight? I don’t think so. No. I think maybe eight months ago I would have been all right. But I haven’t done it in awhile. I think once I got back into it and I trained and maybe I could perform in a proper fight but not at the moment.

Can you tell me a little bit about working with Jessica Barden, because you guys have a great chemistry? That friendship seems very real.
Saoirse Ronan: Yeah, it was actually. Jess and I got on really well. And from the off really. I mean she’s a very easy person to get on with. She’s absolutely mad. And talks like that all the time. She never shuts up. But I really liked her. And she’s not quite as bad as Sophie but she’s quite similar to Sophie. So it was an absolute joy just to observe the way this girl is. There’s no pretense or anything, you know, she’s just real. And we bonded over Gaga and stuff. I mean if I’m working with an actor that likes Gaga we’ve bonded straight away.

Without giving away any spoilers, what do you think happens to Hanna at the end of all this?
Saoirse Ronan: That’s a question I keep asking myself actually. Hmm. I don’t know. I really, really don’t know. I mean the most realistic thing is that she went back to the forest. She probably killed everyone that came into the forest anyways so no one would know she was there. But I’m not sure. I mean a few journalists have said, ‘Oh, well, what about a sequel?’ and I don’t know what they’d do in a sequel. I don’t know what they’d do with her character. But I’m not sure she’d go back to the family, though. I think, because we’re not sure what happens to the family. We’re not really sure what happens to anyone.

Did you take what you learned from here to your next film ‘Violet & Daisy’?
Saoirse Ronan: The handling of a gun, yes. But I didn’t actually fight in ‘Violet & Daisy.’ And everyone thinks it’s going to be quite similar to ‘Hanna’ but it’s not at all. So that’s good. And I learned how to use a gun. And that was probably the only thing I took from ‘Hanna’. I also felt like on ‘Hanna’, I felt more comfortable and had a bit more confidence to suggest things more and share ideas that I had. Whereas I hadn’t really done that up to that point. And so I certainly carried that onto ‘Violet & Daisy’ as well. And I’m glad I did. Because you get more out of it, I think. And it’s more satisfactory then.

Are people listening to you?
Saoirse Ronan: Yeah. They actually were. Yeah.

You mentioned fairy tales earlier and I just read recently that you’re in talks to do ‘The Brothers Grimm: Snow White‘. After two assassin films, what would be the appeal?
Saoirse Ronan: It’s ‘Snow White’. I mean I’m not confirmed to do it or anything but I’d imagine if people were going to get involved in a film like that like they have been with fairy tales, it’s because it’s an exciting thing to do; especially if the director’s going to do something different with it, as well. The director who is attached is very talented. There are a lot of things that I have to consider before I would make a decision.

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Saoirse and Eric Bana interview with Jake Hamilton to talk about Hanna. Thanks again to M for pointing out.

Production on “The Hobbit” is already under way in New Zealand with a diverse cast. But don’t rule out the possibility of a star of a previous Peter Jackson film winding up in the two-part epic.

Saiorse Ronan, the breakout “Atonement ” actress who worked with Jackson on the 2009 spiritual drama “The Lovely Bones,” says that while her much-rumored casting in the fantasy franchise isn’t “confirmed,” she’s optimistic that she’ll be starring amid the dragons and wizards.

“Pete is adding a lot of characters in the film adaption,” she said. “Hopefully they have a part for me.”

The 16-year-old, whose action thriller “Hanna” comes out April 8 (more on her and that shortly), declined to reveal what part she’d play in “The Hobbit.” Instead, she offered that “on IMDB they say I’m playing an elf [specifically Itaril, a character not in the novel that was described in casting reports as a young female fighter who falls in love with an elf lord]. “We’ll just have to figure it all out.”

Speaking in Los Angeles, Ronan said that the primary reasons she’d want to be involved in the films is Jackson and chance to return to New Zealand, where “Bones” was shot.

“It would be great to go back. I love Pete,” she said. “It’s such an amazing family unit down here because it’s such a small country, and they use a lot of the same crew [for each film].” (Ronan is currently traveling to promote “Hanna” but could easily jet down to New Zealand once her tour is over.)

Ronan said she hasn’t yet read the “Hobbit” script but did read the J.R.R. Tolkien original and found herself enraptured.

“It’s magical and it’s a fantasy, but the characters in this story are also so real,” she said. “Bilbo’s such an insecure man. He’s comfortable in his life but he’s kind of reaching out for something else even though he won’t admit it.”

She expects Jackson to bring a different touch than with his previous Tolkien adaptations. “It’s a little bit lighter than ‘Lord of the Rings,’ and Pete is quite a lighthearted man,” she said. “He likes to have fun.”

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