Saoirse attended the 2010 Virtuoso Award at the 25th Annual Santa Barbara International Film Festival yesterday night. Photos are in the gallery.

Video Link:
02.06.10 : Movies.ie

Friday, February 19th sees the Irish release of ‘The Lovely Bones’, a film which sees 15 year old Irish actress Saoirse Ronan (Atonement, City of Ember) take on one of her most challenging roles to date – that of Suzie Salmon – in director Peter Jackson’s adaptation of Alice Sebold’s bestselling novel.

In ‘The Lovely Bones’ Ronan plays a 14 year old girl who watches her family from the afterlife after she was brutally raped and murdered by a neighbour. IFTN recently caught up with the teen actress to talk about filming the project in New Zealand, her recent IFTA nomination and exploring the world of martial arts!

‘The Lovely Bones’ is the latest project to come from ‘Lord of the Rings’ director Peter Jackson who was still in post-production on ‘The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers’ when he first read Alice Sebold’s bestselling novel at the behest of his longtime filmmaking associates, Fran Walsh and Philippa Boyens, who were huge fans of the book and who would go on to write the screenplay for and produce the film.

Show ▼

As mentioned Saoirse plays Suzie, a 14 year old girl who lives in suburban 1970s America and who is brutally killed by her neighbour, Mr. Harvey (a chilling, and Oscar nominated performance by Stanley Tucci). Suzie’s parents, Jack and Abigail, are played by Mark Wahlberg (The Departed) and Rachel Weisz (The Constant Gardener) with a turn from Susan Sarandon (Dead Man Walking) as Grandma Lynn.

As to how Saoirse became involved with the film: she and her father, actor Paul Ronan, acted out some dramatic scenes in an audition tape that would ultimately clinch the part for the young actress, to the surprise of the film’s production team! “A lot of teenage girls turn up at auditions with a pre-packaged screen persona,” Peter Jackson has said “but for Susie, we wanted the opposite, someone who would give the sense of being a very ordinary and real 14 year-old girl. What we didn’t expect is that we would find our teenager from Norristown, Ireland.”

Meeting with Saoirse, congratulations come first and foremost for her recent IFTA and BAFTA nominations, both of which are for ‘The Lovely Bones’. Saoirse reflects that the support from IFTA voters over the last few years has been very heartening: “It’s lovely, for the past few years it has happened and it’s like, ‘Wow’. Yes, it’s fantastic.” As to the recent BAFTA nomination, Saoirse recalls hearing about it with mixed emotions: “We were in Tokyo promoting ‘The Lovely Bones’ and I was so tired, I wanted to die,” she recalls dramatically. “It was just the worst kind of tired. But then Jane from Paramount came over to me and she had got an e-mail on her blackberry saying ‘Stanley and Saoirse have been nominated’. I just started jumping around; I knew Stanley would be nominated but not me. I was so happy; it gave me a bit of energy!”

An IFTA winner for her role in fantasy feature ‘Atonement’ and following her role in last year’s ‘City of Ember’, Saoirse is no stranger to the use of special effects – however, one has to wonder if she was not a bit lonely spending most of the shoot for the film in front of a blue screen on her own, “Not at all,” she replies: “I actually spent quite a lot more time with Mark (Wahlberg) and Rachel (Weisz) than you think. There were a few things that were difficult like one particular scene where Suzie connects with her father from the afterlife. I was in a gazebo and the camera was there and behind the camera was a blue screen so I didn’t have anything to look at which was difficult. So there were certain scenes that were hard because things and people weren’t actually there. Pete would talk to me during takes – he would describe what was going on around me and we would play music that would reflect the mood of the scene and that helped me so much. The vision of the in-between world was sort of given to me and told to me through Pete.”

Saoirse’s breakthrough international role came in Joe Wright’s ‘Atonement’ where she played Briony, a serious girl whose mistake as a child sets of a series of tragedies. Wright was famously impressed with Saoirse’s natural acting abilities – and it seems she got on just as well, albeit on a different level, with Peter Jackson: “Joe can be quite emotional,” she explains, “and I don’t mean that in a bad way at all. He really touches on your emotions and he is very sensitive. I think he directs more with his words rather than anything else and he will guide you along. Pete is very much involved with everything. Work for him is a lot of the collaboration film making between actor and director and I think that is really nice. He knows that he is the director but has great respect for the actors’ abilities – you know what you have to do but at the same time you can experiment with different things and it’s really great in that way.”

Saoirse is a busy lady – production recently ceased on the set of Peter Weir’s ‘The Way Back’, a feature length drama in which she stars alongside Irish actor and fellow IFTA nominee Colin Farrell (Ondine), Jim Sturgess (Across the Universe) and Ed Harris (The Hours). Despite the stellar cast, for Saoirse the one thing about the shoot that immediately comes to mind are the film’s exotic locations. “It was brilliant and lots of fun to do. It was difficult because of the locations which it was shot in, Bulgaria and Morocco which are very different to Ireland.” And ‘difficult’ is a word that will apply to the next few weeks as training for her new film, ‘Hanna’ begins with gusto. “Six days a week for hours!” she exclaims, describing the martial arts lessons she has begun for the new project that sees her play the title role of Hanna, a girl brought up to be a killing machine. The film will reunite her with director Joe Wright something which she’s is very much looking forward to: “I met up with him a few days ago and I’m older and so is he,” she says with a sage tone beyond her years. “We have done more things since then. He was only starting out then as well so it’ll be great to see how we get on with this very different genre of film.”

’Hanna’ will introduce Saoirse to the world of action packed films – in the role of a trained killer – this comes after her turn as a murdered girl wandering limbo and a busy-body little sister in the form of ‘Atonement’s Briony, so is she choosing these polar opposite roles on purpose? “I don’t want to repeat myself first of all and I don’t want to play roles that have been done a thousand times before,” she explains. “I want to play girls that people will be interested in and fascinating girls like Susie and Hanna, especially Hanna. Change is good and I really love playing those kind of girls.”

Despite her young age and the surreal nature of her job, Saoirse remains a level headed teenager, polite and eager – how has she avoided the pitfalls and trappings of fame that have befallen so many child stars before her? “I think the thing to remember is that you can never predict what is going to happen,” she say, “I can’t, Meryl Streep can’t, nobody can and you have to take every day as it comes and never take things too seriously. You should be doing it really for yourselves because you love it and you have fun doing it which is why I do it.”

Source

Video Link:
02.04.10 : Entertainment.ie

Here’s the behind the scenes video of Vanity Fair shoot. Thanks to green for the video.

Video Link:
2010 : Vanity Fair March – Behind the Scenes

Saoirse and Peter Jackson photographed for the March issue of Vanity Fair. Outtakes and behind the scenes photos have been added to the gallery.

The Sprites
Peter Jackson with Saoirse Ronan
One film together: The Lovely Bones (2009).

A 15-year-old student in County Carlow, Ireland, Ronan lives far from the TMZ glare. She played a wised-up child of L.A. in Amy Heckerling’s underrated romantic comedy I Could Never Be Your Woman before taking on a crucial role in Atonement, for which she was nominated for a best-supporting-actress Academy Award at the age of 13. Now she is being justly celebrated for her successful handling of the difficult lead role in The Lovely Bones. Jackson was lucky to have her, just as he was fortunate when he was able to rely on Kate Winslet as the foundation for his 1994 breakthrough hit, Heavenly Creatures. This time around, he needed an actress who could give life to a character who is at once a pitiful victim of a serial killer and a detective, of sorts, working from beyond the grave. This is dark stuff, but Ronan, with her game screen presence, brings a light touch and even some humor to the film.

After only six movies and two starring roles, Saoirse Ronan’s resume is anything but unimpressive.

At only 15, Ronan has won nine awards and had 14 nominations, including Golden Globe, Oscar, and BAFTA nominations for supporting actress in Atonement.

Ronan is the seventh youngest actress to have been nominated for an Oscar for supporting actress.

The Irish actress grew up close to the movie industry, often accompanying her father, actor Paul Ronan, to his movie sets. Paul Ronan is known for such films as The Devil’s Own and Veronica Guerin.

In 2003, at only eight years old, Ronan got her start as a guest star on The Clinic, a popular Irish television drama. After four episodes, she went on to guest in “Proof,” an Irish Soap.

It wasn’t until 2007, when Ronan was 13, that she landed her first supporting role on the silver screen.

Show ▼

In I Could Never Be Your Woman, a romantic comedy about a mother and daughter both falling in love consecutively, Ronan played Izzie, a pre-teen budding musician.

Ronan had three other movies that year – The Christmas Miracle of Jonathon Toomey, Death Defying Acts, and her breakthrough role as the young Briony in Atonement.

Ronan’s most recently played Susie Salmon, the lead character in The Lovely Bones.

In an interview with the Highlander, Ronan talked about life as a 15 year old actress just starting to leap into fame.

Between finding time for an education, deciding which of her friends are real and which are fake, and being away from her home in Ireland, Ronan has already experienced the down side of fame. Her passion and drive for acting, however, have kept her going.

While on the set of The Lovely Bones, Ronan had homework just like any other typical high school girl. The difference was that along with science and history, she had to memorize lines and blocking for scenes shot with nothing but a blue screen.

“I had to keep up with my school work,” Ronan said. “It was hard, because I would come from doing a very intense scene on set, and then I’d have to go in and study about World War I or something. That was sometimes difficult, but it has to be done.”

Ronan plans to further her education eventually, after she has had some time to pursue acting.

“I think I’m going to do both [continue acting and go to college],” Ronan said. “I don’t think I could give up acting right now. I have a passion for it, and I don’t think it would be something that I could just leave now. But, my education is very important to me, so I would like to go to University, and I think I might study film.”

Along with worrying about both the next scene and the next math test, Ronan sometimes had the burden of wondering whether her new friend was real.

“With this job, you’re going to find people who are not genuine,” Ronan said. “Who you think have your best interests, but don’t necessarily have that. I’ve met a few people who’ve been like that, who you would trust, but then you realize that they’re not actually that person. So, I think you just have to be aware of who the real people are and who your true friends are.”

Ronan also has the stress of being away from her home whenever she is shooting a film. She commutes between Ireland and LA whenever she can, which is over 5,100 miles.

“I like Hollywood, but it’s very, very different to Ireland,” Ronan said. “I live in the country. I don’t even live in the city of Dublin. So, it’s nice to go from one place to the other, but it’s always very nice to come back home as well, and do thing that country girls do, like play with animals and things like that.”

Ronan also had to exchange her thick Irish accent for an American one in The Lovely Bones.

“I’ve got a really strong Irish accent,” Ronan said. “It was changed to an American accent, but it was slightly more on the Eastern side because it’s set in Pennsylvania.”

As far as future ambitions in film, Ronan would love to do a romantic comedy. Her past few films have been anything but light-hearted, and Ronan acknowledges comedies as her favorite type of movies.

Ronan lists Jack Nicholson, Meryl Streep, and Natalie Portman as influences and actors she would love to work with.

Saoirse Ronan is an actress who is clearly going places. She has had more awards and nominations in the seven years she has been acting than most actors achieve in their whole careers.

“I think the most important thing is to be educated in film,” Ronan said. “In other actors past and present, and just to make sure that it’s definitely what you want to do. Talk to people who maybe have the same interests as you. And if you’re lucky enough to get a break, just make sure that you’re level headed and you’ve got the right people around you.”

Source

I’ve uploaded the file of Saoirse’s interview with Miriam O’Callaghan to the video archive.

Interview Link:
01.31.10 : Miriam Meets (Radio Interview)

This Sunday 31 January at 10am on Miriam Meets….. presenter Miriam O Callaghan interviews actors Saoirse and her father Paul Ronan, both in Dublin to celebrate the Irish premiere of Saoirse’s latest film The Lovely Bones.

Attention from the paparazzi is still new and Paul explained a recent incident in Tokyo:

“We were followed in Tokyo. The driver noticed that we were being followed by a white car and two taxis. Very skilfully, as he was used to doing it, he pulled in at a point in the road where the other cars had no choice but to keep going, he then pulled a U turn and went another way. They found us and asked for photos, but because Saoirse was a little bit unsettled by all of this, we said no.”

Saoirse commented:

“It is something that freaks me out. You can’t avoid it, but you can also draw attention. Maybe because I am not the type who will be going out to parties all the time, they will leave me alone.”

Show ▼

The Oscar nominations are being announced on Tuesday, 2 February and Saoirse is hotly tipped for a nomination in the Best Actress in a leading role:

“It’s something that is hard not to think about, but I try not to. If it doesn’t happen, you are going to be disappointed, there’s no two ways about it.”

On the role of Susie Salmon in The Lovely Bones:

“These are the types of roles I like to play. They are challenging and very satisfying to pull that emotion out and please the director.”

The Lovely Bones is the story of 14 year old Susie Salmon who is raped and murdered by a neighbour. The film tells the story from the point of view of Susie Salmon who speaks to us after her death. Paul answers criticism of allowing Saoirse play a role like this:

“We would never put Saoirse in any danger, or in emotional danger. That script was vetted.”

Miriam asked Saoirse if she had to pinch herself sometimes when she thinks of how her life has changed in the last few years:

“From time to time, I think I have worked with Peter Jackson, I have shaken hands with Steven Spielberg, I have worked with Vanessa Redgrave. I am so lucky that so early in life I have figured out what I love to do and that love has grown over the last few years, and I don’t think that that love will ever weaken. I think it will grow stronger and stronger.”

Source

OMG!!!! Two new outtakes from Vanity Fair shoot has just surfaced. Saoirse looks stunning.