Saoirse has recently talked to TIME Magazine about her career and her current work in the play ‘The Crucible’ – she describes her character, Abigail, and her motivations, stating she believes it is important for her to play intelligent women, “because I think in art, you have a responsibility to portray real life”. A new beautiful photo was released along with the article, which you can see/read below.
It’s two hours before the curtain goes up, and Saoirse Ronan is making a cup of tea in her cramped dressing room. She offers me a cup, though thankfully not the “gross” licorice-flavored kind Ronan is drinking to revive her voice before she takes the Broadway stage as Abigail, the manipulative maid at the heart of Arthur Miller’s play The Crucible. As the Irish actor, whose name is pronounced “Ser-sha,” searches for her favorite green mug, we discuss how Abigail is traditionally played as a teenage seductress who beguiles the noble John Proctor. When the older man later casts out Abigail, she brings the 17th century Massachusetts town of Salem to its knees by accusing Proctor’s wife and others of witchcraft.
At least that’s the way U.S. schools usually teach it, I tell her. “I bet it was a male teacher who told you she was the villain,” she jokes in reply. To Ronan, Abigail is more victim than victimizer. “She’s usually played quite vampy and sexual and all that. I wasn’t going to do that. I just thought she’s a 17-year-old, quite precocious, very smart. But she’s hormonal and emotional because she’s 17, and this older man gives her time and attention. As far as she’s concerned, he’s in love with her, she’s in love with him, and she’ll do anything for them to be together,” she says. “And I respect that actually. ”
