Saoirse Ronan
Kicks Butt as “Hanna”!
by Lynn Barker
 Irish teen actress Saoirse [pronounced Sirsha] Ronan is a Gaga “monster” and Oscar nominee (for Atonement when she was 13). The pretty girl with the ice blue eyes will be 17 on April 12th and is stoked about her birthday gift Lady Gaga concert tix. We’re curled up on a hotel couch at the 4 Seasons in Beverly Hills asking about her amazing action role as a teen on a killing mission in Hanna. Quite a change from playing a dead girl in The Lovely Bones.
A few days ago AGW also met with Saoirse at the trendy SLS Hotel in L.A. to munch on posh desserts and we talked boys and “The Hunger Games”. Saoirse, as well as a ton of other teen and young adult actresses, lost the Katniss part to Oscar nominee Jennifer Lawrence. Saoirse was okay with it. “Jennifer will be good. She’s a bit older but she’ll be good”. After chatting cool sunglasses, we moved on to boys; “Boys really like to do weird things to get with you, like [tick] you off”. Yeah, we’ve noticed.
Back to our current chat. We’ve noticed that Saoirse has taken out her hair extensions and has kicked off her tan Miu, Miu mega-heels. She’s in a cute yellow and while sun dress and we’re comfy so let’s talk Hanna.
AGW: Hanna tries to kind of join the tourist family who befriends her. You have a great mom and dad. Was it hard for you to imagine being a teen without a complete family?
Saoirse: I guess I know how important my mom and dad are to me so to imagine being without them certainly wasn’t nice. I detached my situation from Hanna’s but I wouldn’t like to imagine traveling around on my own and not have their support. Yeah, maybe a few years from now but, at the moment, I’m a kid. I imagine that this business can mess with your head if you don’t have people you can trust around you.
AGW: Like Lindsay Lohan has had a hard time. I interviewed her before all her trouble started.
Saoirse: Yeah. I’ve talked to a few people who knew her before and it’s sad it’s worked out the way it has. I hope that she’ll be able to get it together because she is talented.
AGW: We agree. There was a cute guy Hanna goes on a date with and did you (as Hanna) ever get to kiss him? Your kiss gets interrupted when Hanna decides to deck him!
Saoirse: [laughs] I think we did a take where we did the kiss. He is very cute.
AGW: Were you there when the Spanish gypsies do their great song and dances and did you get up after shooting the scene and dance?
Saoirse: We were there and I did get up and dance. It was amazing! It was the last day, a night shoot. We were working till like 7:00 in the morning. They brought in these Spanish gypsy dancers. They don’t rehearse because it’s a spiritual experience for them and different every time. We just sat by the fire and they let the cameras roll.
 Then, when they finished, I went up and danced with them with my very white wig and eyebrows.
AGW: Hanna has grown up so isolated that everything in the outside world fascinates her. Was there ever anything you saw or experienced that fascinated you that much?
Saoirse: A very good question! I’ve really gotten into reading over the last few years. I get very attached when I get into a book. I read Andy Warhol’s biography “A to B and Back Again” and I loved that and felt it was amazing. Also fascinating was a video of David Bowie back in the ‘60’s going to visit Andy Warhol’s Factory and he used to be a mime artist so he did these different miming performances. In one, he got a scissors and cut out his stomach and pulled out his insides and his heart. [She sees how wide my eyes are getting]. It was performance art! I think he threw his heart away and became a bird. That was on YouTube.
AGW: Eric Bana, who plays your dad in the film, is a really big guy and you had to fight him. You’ve said that you actually hurt him because he was holding back not wanting to hit a girl?
Saoirse: I reckon so. Eric is a very sweet guy and a family man as well so, of course, he’s not gonna want to hurt a kid. We did quite a few fights together and sometimes he held back. I’d go straight for him. Then I think he realized, “Okay. I can be a little bit tougher”. It was fine in the end. In the movie Funny People, his arms were described as legs so every time I’d punch him, I’d have a “leg” hit me back on my scrawny little arms. [She pokes one out and yes, it’s petite].
AGW: Hanna is friends with wolves and pets them. Was that fun to shoot or were they just scary?
Saoirse: I didn’t like them. They weren’t full wolves. They were wolves crossed with Huskies. Then another one was a German Shepherd and wolf cross.
AGW: Did they try to bite you?
Saoirse: The first ones did and it was kind of annoying because Joe [Wright, her director] was like “Just get in there and don’t be scared or they’ll know”. I get on well with dogs. I love dogs. He’d say “They’re just dogs”. They are not dogs. I was wearing deerskin when I met them and they smelled the animal and started nibbling at my body. They thought I was prey. “Get me the… F.. out of here!” It wasn’t fun at all. The baby ones were okay but I was in a hole with them and they gave them a bone. Then when they tried to take it away they were all grrrrrrrrr. But the camels were lovely. I think they’re nice.
 AGW: You really kick butt in this movie. Did you ever think that someday you might want to be an action hero like Angelina Jolie in Tomb Raider or Salt?
Saoirse: Not really. I’d probably pretended to be an action hero when I was playing but it was never something I thought of as a type of film I’d be involved in but I’m glad I did. I’m glad I tried it and that we made something that was interesting out of an action role.
AGW: Now that you will be seventeen in a few days, will you consider playing a 20-year-old or do you always just want to play your age?
Saoirse: Yeah, I can be made to look older. I wouldn’t have a problem of playing older but not somebody like twenty-five. I wouldn’t pass for that.
AGW: Was there any bumpy transition when you became an older teen and not a tween or kid actor anymore?
Saoirse: Not really. I haven’t made a big transition to be honest. Since I was a kid I’ve always played very grown-up type roles. They’ve been children but they’ve been intense, detailed and smart children. I’ve never done the little kiddy-cutesie thing. Because of that, I think the transition has been easier. The roles I’m looking at now some of them are the age I am and some are older, eighteen or nineteen. It hasn’t been a problem so far.
AGW: Was it intimidating to be headlining your own film? I mean this is really your movie.
Saoirse: I was a little bit worried. I always get worried that I’m not gonna do a character justice because I really want to. So far I’ve played characters that I’ve really cared about and wanted them to be seen in their truest light. With Hanna, when I realized that she was quite an interesting character and, if people don’t get her, she is just like all the other action heroines. That was a worry I had.
AGW: What was working with Cate Blanchette like?
Saoirse: I didn’t know what to expect with Cate. I knew she was a nice person because Pete and Fran (Peter Jackson and Fran Walsh) in New Zealand had worked with her before and they loved her and said how professional she was. And, my dad (actor Paul Ronan) worked with her in Veronica Guerin. He told me about her and it was lovely and fantastic to work with her. She didn’t really give me any pointers but we worked well together. She was everything they said she was.
AGW: Okay so what is the coolest thing about Lady Gaga to you and how stoked are you about going to her concert here in L.A. as a birthday gift from your folks (her birthday is April 12th)?
Saoirse: [laughing] Now, everybody knows I’m a “monster”…a big fan. The coolest thing about Lady Gaga is that she knows exactly what move to make next. She’s completely honest and true with her fans and she’s real. I know she’s a performance artist and puts on a show but she seems like a very real person. I like that about her and she’s amazing on the piano. That duet she did with Elton John was brilliant!
AGW: You made a film called Violet and Daisy. Tell us about your part.
Saoirse: Violet and Daisy are two best friends who are hit girls but she is not like Hanna so don’t worry. It’s set in New York City and they live in their own perfect little world where puppy dogs run about and Barbie Sunday is their teen idol and she’s kind of like Lady Gaga to me. Barbie comes out with a new dress so they go on a job in order to pay for the dress and they’re supposed to kill James Gandolfini’s character. Yeah, kill Tony Soprano [we laugh].
Uncredited photos copyright and courtesy , 2011
This film is rated PG-13
Movie web site - Hanna |
