Here’s a little article about Saoirse and her role in Hanna . Thanks to M for the heads up.

SHE might be known for her fragile and ethereal charm, but it was a whole new departure for Saoirse Ronan in her latest role as an “innocent” young killer.

The Irish actress had to put in some serious physical training — including weights and knife fighting — in a gruelling schedule of four to five hours every day to prepare for her part in the film, ‘Hanna’, co-starring Eric Bana and Cate Blanchett, which marks her reunion with ‘Atonement’ director Joe Wright.

“It was bad-ass — really cool,” said Saoirse, explaining she plays a teenage killer trained as an assassin by her dad from birth.

“But she’s kind of innocent,” she added.

Her own father, actor Paul Ronan, who accompanied his daughter to the launch in Dublin yesterday of the Irish Film and Television Awards, told reporters he was very impressed by the work his daughter had put into the role.

“She was really well prepared,” he said, explaining that she had trained with a Hollywood stunt man and went to LA for further training.

“Maybe it means I can stop following her around at some stage in her life,” he laughed.

Saoirse, meanwhile, said she hoped the new movie would be something new and different from what has previously been out there.

The 16-year-old actress — dressed like any other teenager in a striped breton top, grey cardigan, khaki trousers and red studded Converse boots and wearing her blonde hair loose — has been nominated for an IFTA for her role in ‘The Way Back’, about escapees from a Siberian gulag who walk 4,000 miles overland to freedom.

Saoirse, who begins the gruelling round of publicity work for ‘Hanna’ in the US in March, is not currently shooting a movie.

Instead she is enjoying some much-deserved downtime at home in Carlow, hanging out with her friends and her beloved dog and going bowling with her family as well as making trips to the cinema — “normal stuff” her father said.

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