The Lovely ...
THE LOVELY
SAOIRSE
She's been nominated for an Oscar, counts Colin Farrell as a friend and has been compared to a young Cate Blanchett. It's fair to say Saoirse Ronan is no ordinary teenager, despite her protestations that she is.
According to Saoirse, she loves fashion and music as much as the next 15-year-old, but her maturity and remarkable acting ability puts the Co Carlow schoolgirl in a class of her own.
Anyone who watched her incredible Oscar-nominated performance in Atonement would have been struck by her portrayal of a self- contained adolescent, who tells a devastating lie with heart- breaking repercussions.
And in her upcoming movie, The Lovely Bones, based on the bestselling novel by Alice Sebold, Saoirse again impressed everyone on set with her quiet, calm confidence.
Speaking of her role as murdered school girl Susie Salmon, director Peter Jackson commented: "She reminds me of a young Cate Blanchett. She's terrifically gifted and commands attention -- quite phenomenal."
Indeed, the whispers have already started that the film is an Oscar contender and that Saoirse herself will pick up the gong for Best Actress.
So no pressure then, I ask her?
"Well, I must admit, I do feel a little bit of pressure," she says.
"Until a few days ago no one had even seen the movie, apart from a handful of people involved in it. I haven't even seen it.
"Now there are all these Oscar polls saying the film is going to win and I'm going to win. I suppose I should take it as a compliment though."
In The Lovely Bones, Saoirse plays a young girl who has been raped and murdered. While in heaven, she watches over her family and her killer and must weigh up her longing for revenge against her desire for her family to heal.
Like Briony Tallis in Atonement, for which she was nominated for an Oscar for Best Supporting Actress, it's a dark and thought- provoking role, leaving Saoirse emotionally drained at times.
And it brought home to her the unbearable pain felt by families grieving the loss of loved ones or missing children, such as Gerry and Kate McCann.
"I knew coming into it that The Lovely Bones was going to be very different from anything I've done before," she says.
"It was very emotional and I remember a couple of times coming home from the set and thinking about how many young girls get killed every day and how their families must go through such torture.
"It got me thinking about the McCanns, who still don't know whether Madeleine is out there somewhere, still alive, or God forbid, if she's lying dead in a ditch somewhere.
"A few times I did get very upset. But the story is also very beautiful, magical and mystical and although I haven't seen it yet, I know there's a real feeling of the 'other world' about it.
"When we're on earth, it's very much earth, but heaven was much more difficult to portray.
"Peter Jackson basically talked me through every scene and I'm keen to see how it's turned out and how heaven is going to look."
Saoirse is both excited and nervous about watching the new film for the first time.
"It was a huge part of my life for two years really, so I've no idea how I'm going to feel when I see it," she says.
"We shot the movie for about six or seven months but there were gaps in between for me to do voice-overs, as I'm also the narrator.
"So it's kind of strange now that it's all finished. I hope when I sit back to watch it, that it's a good kind of strange feeling that I have.
"I really, really want this movie to be everything that it's expected to be. And it would be great if it got nominated for an Oscar. I guess we'll just have to wait and see what happens."
Working with Peter Jackson was, says Saoirse, a "joy".
She explains: "I suppose most people associate Peter with films like Lord of the Rings and King Kong, but's he gone back to his older movies like Heavenly Creatures with this one.
"He's got such a lot of heart and he really wanted to capture the whole family's journey in The Lovely Bones. He's a lovely guy to work with and to be around, a complete joy."
Despite her young years, Saoirse is no stranger to working with some of the best known names in the industry -- Vanessa Redgrave, James McAvoy, Keira Knightley, Mark Wahlberg, Rachel Weisz, Bill Murray, Michelle Pfeiffer, Catherine Zeta Jones, Tim Robbins, Susan Sarandon and Colin Farrell, to name but a few.
One of her earliest memories is being picked up and nursed by Brad Pitt when he was in Ireland filming The Devil's Own. Her father Paul, an actor too, was in the movie with Pitt and had brought his baby daughter along to the set.
According to Saoirse, she's been lucky so far -- she's never encountered any diva behaviour among her co-stars or found herself pandering to anyone's over-sized ego.
"They've all been great, I've no real favourites," she says.
"I keep in touch with some of the people I've worked with before, other actors, directors, producers. Sometimes you're with them for a few months and you become close."
Two actors she has a lot of respect and affection for are her City of Ember co-stars Bill Murray and Tim Robbins, whom she worked with while filming in Belfast two years ago.
She says: "I loved Bill, he was so funny and made me laugh all the time. And Tim just loves Ireland. He is so passionate about the people and the culture. I think it's great that big Hollywood names like him have such respect for our country given how small it is."
Saoirse was based in Belfast for four months while filming children's fantasy City of Ember.
The Tom Hanks-backed movie was mainly shot in the old Paint Hall in the Titanic Quarter, which was transformed into a magical multi- million pound underground city.
But despite the stellar line-up and financial investment, the film was something of a box office flop, to the dismay of everyone involved in the project, including Saoirse.
"I think the movie should have done a lot better than it did," she says.
"The way it was shot was so beautiful, the book it was based on was very unique and the story was interesting.
"The director Gil Kenan is young with lots of great, crazy ideas and he put his heart and soul into this movie.
"All the actors were fantastic, too, and the special effects were brilliant. So I'm very surprised it didn't do better.
"Maybe it had something to do with the competition it was up against at the time, or maybe it wasn't publicised enough. Who knows?"
Saoirse and her famous co-stars loved their time in Belfast and were often spotted out and about around the city.
"I loved having a nosy around the shops," she says.
"We weren't blessed with brilliant weather when we were there, but it didn't matter because the crew we worked with were so lovely.
"That's probably what I loved most about the place, the people.
"We stayed out at Holywood so we were just a few minutes from the sea and there was a place nearby where we used to get lovely fish and chips."
Next month the young actress will be
CAPTION: OSCAR TIPPED: Saoirse Ronan stars as Susie Salmon in DreamWorks Pictures' drama The Lovely Bones, a Paramount Pictures release, which is released in cinemas January 29, 2010STAR PALS: (From top) Saoirse in Atonement, with Keira Knightley on the set of the Oscar-nominated film and staring in children's fantasy City of EmberGONG NIIGHT: Saoirse at the Oscars
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