During an interview for CraveOnline, Kevin McDonald – who directed the film “How I Live Now” – talked about Saoirse. Read the article below.

CraveOnline: Saoirse told us you did not want to cast her at first.

Kevin Macdonald: [Laughs] Well, that’s not quite true. It’s not that I didn’t want to cast her. It’s just that I didn’t think of her for the role I suppose because I wanted an American and I wanted somebody who was unknown. I had it in my head that it should all be a cast of unknowns. I looked for a long time here in the States, had a great casting director, and we looked and looked and couldn’t find anybody.

Then the casting director in the U.K. said, “What about Saoirse?” And I said, “Well, she’s great. She’s a great actress but she’s Irish and she’s a bit older than the character who was meant to be maybe 16.” She said, “Well, you should just meet her.” And of course she walked in and I looked at her and was like, “All right, you’re so fantastic.” Then she read a scene and we were all in tears. Instantly I thought, what an idiot I am. Why didn’t I think of her to begin with? We would’ve saved a lot of time and pain.

Is How I Live Now your first love story?

I guess it is. I’ve done things which have a love story element in them, a romantic element in them of one sort or another. State of Play is a romantic story at it’s heart. Last King of Scotland even has a love story in it but this is the first one which I can say is a love story. That’s what it is. It is a love story. It’s about a girl who can’t love, can’t be loved, doesn’t feel she’s loved who learns to be loved and learns to give love and is transformed through the course of this tale. I was attracted to that. I wanted to make a love story. I wanted to make a story which, although it’s quite dystopian and dark and disturbing in some ways, is at its heart positive, a very positive human message.

For the complete interview, please visit CraveOnline.