Category: Press

Saoirse talks about ‘Star Wars’

In a fun new article posted by The New York times, several artists talk about their first time watching ‘Star Wars’, including Saoirse – who, incidentally, autidioned for Episode VII. Read her experience below.

My friend Bill as a boy loved it. I had seen the newer ones, and you know [screws up face], so I thought that’s what “Star Wars” was. He sat me down and said no, no, no, no, no, you have no idea how brilliant this is. So I watched it for the first time [two months ago]. It was so beautiful — I loved it. And I cried when I saw Yoda. Hormones, hormones and “Star Wars.” That’s why children should watch “Star Wars” and not 21-year-old women, because you get very maternal toward Yoda. Super-maternal. I don’t care [that he is hundreds of years old]! He was so wise, but he looked after so many people. Someone needed to take care of him. And then he dies, and he passed on all this wisdom to Luke. Oh my God, I’m going to go watch it again.

Photoshoots > 2015 > Session 035

Articles Photoshoots

Published

by Jess

on Oct 29, 2015

(Photos) Saoirse for Backstage Magazine

Saoirse has recently spoken to Backstage magazine about ‘Brooklyn’, and the article has just been released. Our gallery was updated with a photoshoot featured in the issue, and you can read her interview below.

Photoshoots > 2015 > Session 034

Eilis Lacey is a girl on the cusp of womanhood in “Brooklyn,” director John Crowley’s adaptation of Colm Tóibín’s 2009 novel. Leaving behind her rural hometown in Ireland, Eilis is heading into an uncertain future in 1950s New York. And though the period setting might seem distancing, the story of growth and the nature of home spoke directly to star Saoirse Ronan.

“As you leave home, you’re never able to take that step back,” Ronan says. “The realization that I had is that no matter what, once you have an experience that is separate from your home life and from your family and where you grew up, you will never be the same again. You will never be the person that you’d have been had you stayed.”

Sitting over hors d’oeuvres at Manhattan’s Crosby Street Hotel, Ronan is referring not only to screenwriter Nick Hornby’s script (which charts Eilis’ move to Brooklyn; her first love; and her return to Ireland upon a family member’s death), but also to her own life. When Crowley first approached her about the role several years ago, Ronan was in the midst of planning a permanent move from her parents’ house in Dublin to London. Much like Eilis’ emigration to Brooklyn, Ronan’s move to London was her unequivocal leap into independence and adulthood—one she made just before filming “Brooklyn.”

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Published

by Jess

on Oct 29, 2015

(Scans) Empire – December

Saoirse is features on the December issue of Empire magazine. There is a review on ‘Brooklyn’ right on the beginning of the issue, and a page talking about her a little further on. We have added the scans to our photo gallery.

Magazine Scans > 2015 > Empire (December)

Articles Magazine Scans

Published

by Jess

on Oct 29, 2015

Saoirse talks to The Telegraph

The Telegraph has published a great article about Saoirse on their website, celebrating her career and her latest sucess in ‘Brooklyn’. Read it below.

Saoirse Ronan has beautiful pale-blue eyes. Every director she has worked with has chosen to focus on this at some point, because they express so much. As Ian McEwan said of her breakthrough role in the film of his novel Atonement, ‘She gives us thought processes right on screen, even before she speaks, and conveys so much with her eyes.’ Which makes it all the more distressing when, during our meeting, they suddenly fill with tears.

I am telling her how much I enjoyed her latest film, Brooklyn, which went to Sundance Film Festival early this year as a small indie vying for attention and came out as an Oscar contender. Ronan ends up apologising for getting emotional. ‘I’ve never worked as hard as that, and I definitely needed a bit of emotional support because it’s too close to home,’ she says.

‘For people to respond to it as well as they have – I have to say it’s a dream.’ She has not seen the film, she admits later. ‘I can’t. Just talking about it, you can see I’m a basket case. In a couple of years, or when I have kids or something, we’ll all sit and watch it together.’

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Articles Interviews Saoirse Ronan Fan

Published

by Jess

on Oct 25, 2015

NY Times Interview & Portrait

We have a new great interview of Saoirse and she talks about Brooklyn, Ireland and moving away from her home. Also, be sure to check out the beautiful portrait in our gallery.

It’s a mystery to Saoirse Ronan why she’s one of the few Irish actresses to burst onto the world’s stage in the last 50 years or so.

Irish actors are another story: They’ve been coming up in droves. Colin Farrell, Michael Fassbender (who is half German, but was raised in Ireland from the age of 2), Pierce Brosnan, Liam Neeson, Cillian Murphy, Stephen Rea and Gabriel Byrne are just some of the Emerald Isle’s menfolk to find Hollywood success. A few Irish actresses have, too, albeit to a lesser extent — among them Sinead Cusack, Fionnula Flanagan, Fiona Shaw and Brenda Fricker, who won an Academy Award for her role in “My Left Foot” (1989). But at least in the United States, none are exactly household names. The last Irish actress to really make a splash in the United States was Maureen O’Hara, who recently turned 95.

“I think a lot of it comes down to luck; I think a lot of it comes down to timing,” Ms. Ronan, who is 21, said recently over breakfast at the Crosby Street Hotel in SoHo. “I don’t know why some of the male actors moved ahead while we didn’t.”

Ms. Ronan’s might not be a household name quite yet, but that’s partly because Americans remain largely incapable of pronouncing it (it’s “SEER-sha”). She was the young baker with the Mexico-shaped birthmark in “The Grand Budapest Hotel,” the luminous teenage assassin in “Hanna,” the slain girl who narrates the “The Lovely Bones,” and the tweenage aristocrat who set the plot in motion in “Atonement,” a performance that earned Ms. Ronan an Oscar nomination at the age of 13. Continue reading

Brooklyn Interviews Photoshoots

Published

by Jess

on Oct 22, 2015

W Magazine Interview & Photo Session

W Magazine has published a great new interview with Saoirse, as well as a very interesting photoshoot, which you can see on our photo gallery. Read the article below.

Photoshoots > 2015 > Session 031

SAOIRSE RONAN: QUEEN OF HEARTS

Actress Saoirse Ronan, star of the coming-of-age romance Brooklyn, is stealing them left and right.

“I’ve had to spell out my name for confused people my entire life,” said Saoirse (pronounced Sear-sha) Ronan, the star of Brooklyn, in theaters this month. Ronan was calling from her home in Ireland, not far from Enniscorthy, where the film was shot. Brooklyn is based on the Colm Tóibín novel about a young Irish girl who immigrates to America in the 1950s; following a family tragedy, she must choose between her new life in New York and her former one, in Ireland. It’s an old-fashioned story, in the best sense. At a time when strong heroines of the non–comic book variety are increasingly rare, Eilis Lacey, as played by Ronan, is spirited, confused, independent, and unique. “She’s complex, but I would say, somewhat proudly, that Eilis is Irish,” Ronan continued. “And being Irish is part of the reason I never wanted to change my name, even when it was strongly suggested. Saoirse means ‘freedom.’ And my middle name, Una, means ‘unity.’ Freedom and unity—that’s quite a lot to live up to.”

Ronan, who is 21, actually was born in the Bronx. Her parents left their native Ireland in the ’80s in search of work. In New York, Ronan’s mother was employed as a nanny and her father tended bar at a place that was popular with actors from the Irish Repertory Theatre. “They convinced my dad to audition for a play,” Ronan said. “He did it as a lark, but got the part.” When Ronan was 3, her family returned to Ireland; her dad, whose acting career was starting to take off, noticed that she loved being filmed. “I am an only child, and I would disappear into my own world. I staged long, intricate soap operas with my dolls. My father saw that I was drawn to the camera, and I think he felt it took me out of myself.”

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Interviews Photoshoots

Published

by Jess

on Oct 19, 2015

(Video) Saoirse’s Screentalk at BFI London Film Festival

Here is the full video of Saoirse’s screentalk during the BFI London Film Festival she chatted about starting acting young and more. Check it out.

Atonement Brooklyn Interviews Videos

Published

by Jess

on Oct 15, 2015

Saoirse’s interview for Hypable

Selina Wilken from Hypable had the chance to talk to Saoirse during the BFI London Film Festival, and the interview is already online. They talked about Brooklyn, female directors, stories from the Atonement set and more!

Why ‘Brooklyn’ is Saoirse Ronan’s most personal project yet
Saoirse Ronan describes Brooklyn as, “Very challenging, but the most rewarding film I’ve ever done.”

“Just the effect it has on me… I don’t know what it is, I’m still very much awash with emotion,” she admits. “Eilis, and Eilis’ story, is just a huge part of who I am.”

In the past, Ronan has always looked for roles that allowed her to step away from herself and play varied, interesting characters. But in Brooklyn, she really found herself empathizing with Eilis on a personal level. “And I think because it was so close to me, to not have any separation at all was actually a lot scarier, and it was a lot more vulnerable,” she reflects.

“Someone said to me that it’s a very delicate film and it’s such a great way to describe it, cause simple was never the right word,” says Ronan. “It’s an incredibly emotional film. We all know what that feeling [of leaving home] is like, what that heaviness is like.”

“The realization sets in that you can’t go back, that once you’ve made that step, you can never go back to how it was, before you left, and you can’t prepare yourself for that, you know? That’s not something that anyone tells you about really, when you leave home.”

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Brooklyn Interviews

Published

by Jess

on Oct 12, 2015