Lovely Girl

It’s the day of the Irish premiere of The Lovely Bones. Saoirse Ronan’s mum Monica, a lively, easygoing sort, is close by as the nation’s most promising actress meets the press, one at a time. Monica doesn’t sit in on her daughter’s interviews anymore. “She can handle herself,” mum reckons.

She certainly can. Ms. Ronan may be bright, sunny and articulate but sitting down with her is a slightly gobsmacking experience. There is something otherworldly about Saoirse Ronan. Delicate elfin features frame her preternaturally blue eyes. Her words are invariably wise beyond her years. Her accounts of childhood, of solitary play and flights of fancy, make you think she’s wandered in from a Narnia adventure.
At 15, she is assured, poised and delightful, everything that 15-year-olds aren’t supposed to be; “Some people say I should change the spelling or the pronunciation,” she says. “But the whole point is that it’s the Irish word for freedom. That means an awful lot to us. So there’s no way I’m altering my name. People will just have to get used to saying it.”
Having toured with Peter Jackson’s major $100 million production for months, her professional, casual answers rarely sound like things teenagers typically say; “I love Lady Gaga and Rhianna and Jay-Z and The Killers and all the obvious stuff,” she tells me. “But I don’t know what I’d do without Fleetwood Mac or The Beatles or Talking Heads.”
She is philosophical about her craft and describes film as a director’s medium – “for me,” she says, “a film must always belong to the filmmakers. In this case that was Pete and Philippa and Fran. If I feel strongly about something I’ll say it but their interpretation is more important than mine.”
Pete and Philippa and Fran are, of course, Peter Jackson, Philippa Boyens and Fran Walsh, the multi-award winning screenwriting team behind the Lord Of The Rings franchise. The Lovely Bones, their sanitised adaptation of the bestselling novel by Alice Sebold is a plum showcase for Ms. Ronan who takes on the central role as Susie Salmon, a rape and murder victim who watches over her parents and her killer from a shifting afterlife.
“I actually waited until after I’ve made the film to read the book,” says Ms. Ronan. “I was 13 at the time, you know? I had heard that the first chapter in particular was quite a tough read. I knew everything was described in the book in a way that it isn’t in the film. I just didn’t want to put myself through it at such a young age.”
Otherwise, she relished the whole Lovely Bones experience.
“I had great guidance from a great director,” she says. “I had done tiny bits of blue screen work before but nothing compared to what I had to do here so I was nervous going in. But I had someone who is very used to that kind of work. Peter described everything that was going on around me, would play music and make sure I was relaxed.”
Did she have any idea how this CGI heavy production would look?
“No,” she says. “I saw a little bit of artwork but I wasn’t sure how it would look in the end. They were often figuring things out as they went along. When I finally saw the finished film it completely took my breath away. They did a terrific job on it. And to see this film that I had worked on for such a long time was strange. It was hard to get used to the fact that it was finally a real movie.”
Born in the Bronx, the star retains few memories of her immigrant experience; her Irish parents returned to Carlow when she was still a toddler and she had little contact with the outside world in a city where play dates are carefully orchestrated.
“It’s a shame, really,” she says. “I remember tiny details. I remember a family friend coming around with one of those boxes where the spider shakes when you open the lids. I was in bits afterwards. I was so frightened. I remember little pointless things that have nothing to do with the city. They just happened when I happened to be there.”
Her father, a jobbing actor, was taking young Saoirse to film sets long before she landed her first role in RTÉ’s The Clinic, a gig that led on to Atonement, Joe Wright’s highly decorated literary drama. Playing opposite such bright young things as Keira Knightley and James McAvoy, the young Irish actress’s portrait of a manipulative pre-pubescent earned her an Oscar nod and armfuls of awards. Since then, she has landed key roles in Death Defying Acts alongside Guy Pearce and Catherine Zeta Jones, City Of Ember with Tim Robbins and Bill Murray and the forthcoming Hanna, in which she’ll play a teen assassin.
“I don’t want to repeat myself with characters that I play and I don’t want to play characters that have been done a thousand times by other people either,” she says firmly. “Basically repetition is not something that interests me. I don’t want to feel safe as a performer. I want to be tested.”
Her glittering career may have a price tag; an only child, she is currently home educated and recently admitted to The Guardian that she was bullied by teachers and pupils.
By her own account, however, Ms. Ronan is a popular lady who shoots hoops with her mates and who makes friends on every project; “I’m still very much in touch with Peter and Fran and Phillippa,” she says. “They’re amazing people. I love them. I’d love to get the chance to work with them again but they’re my friends anyway. We email each other a lot. I love Stanley Tucci. He’s just a great fellow to hang around with. And then Lucinda Dryzek, who plays Lizzie in City Of Ember, is a really good friend of mine. I’ve made lots of friends. I’m lucky that way.”
There is, moreover, some evidence to suggest that Ms. Ronan’s status as a daydreaming single child may be the basis for her uncannily impressive acting chops.
“I don’t know for sure,” she muses. “But it’s a good point. As an only child my mam and dad gave me an awful lot of confidence and let me be a very independent person. But I also had to amuse myself and entertain myself. My imagination was always in full drive because I was on my own.”
She’d like to do a comedy – “something quirky, something light” – but only if it fits within her carefully considered career guidelines.
“There are three things I look out for when I’m choosing a film,” she says. “A well written script or what potentially could be a good script, a great director to work with – even when they’re not Peter Jackson, by meeting them you just know – and an interesting and challenging role to play.”
She hopes, eventually, to study filmmaking at NYU and make her mark as a writer and director.
“I really want to write and direct,” she says. “Acting is wonderful but being able to create something – either alone or with someone else – then getting your imagination onto a page, then onto a screen – is a brilliant thing. It’s all storytelling so it’s kind of continuing on from what I do now.”
Well said, young lady. But with all these sensible plans does she ever get to have old-fashioned Hollywood fun?
“Oh, I do,” she says. “I got to meet Meryl Streep at the Critics Awards. Stanley Tucci introduced us. When I went back to my seat I started telling everyone ‘I just met Meryl Streep and she gave me a hug and told me I was great in a movie!’ I couldn’t stop giggling for a whole five minutes.”

The Lovely Bones opens on February 19