SAOIRSE RONAN (Atonement) chats about the physical and mental challenges of her starring role in Peter Jackson’s latest film adaptation, The Lovely Bones.
Saoirse Ronan as Susie Salmon
MMM: At what point did you realise what a big deal this film was going to be for your career?
Ronan: I think first of all when I heard who the director was going to be, that was quite big. But I think for me I think it was probably after we made the movie because I was just focusing on getting through it and bringing Susie out into the world as best as I possibly could with [screenwriters] Pete [Jackson] and Fran [Walsh] and Philippa [Boyens]. It was really when we started to do press and people started to talk about their reaction to the movie and my performance and the other actors. It’s kind of just hitting me now really, how crazy this is going to be.
MMM: How did you and Stanley Tucci prepare to shoot the murder scene?
Ronan:The thing about that scene was it was quite late on into the shooting process, so really from the off we were always anticipating this scene and what we were going to do with it. But luckily, Stanley and I are very close, we’re friends now and we got on really well from the first time we met. We really didn’t know each other until we started the cornfield scene, so from that moment on it could have been intense but we kept the atmosphere up. I suppose we just tried different things.
Susie after she's passed into the In-Between world
MMM: How did you find working with Stanley during that scene?
Ronan:It seemed to me that because Stanley is a family man himself, in between takes he would feel the need to take care of me and make sure that I was okay, which I thought was very sweet. Even though he was still in that state of mind he was able to switch from this monster to this father again, because it’s natural in him.
MMM: What were the biggest physical challenges you faced in making the film?
Ronan: It was probably the scene underground. I think when you see that shot of her escaping, which is what we all want to believe has actually happened, that was quite tricky. We spent a good bit of time trying to figure out what we were going to do with the stunt team and Pete. So that took a long time.
Plus I actually had a cold at the time. I used to tell him [Peter Jackson] all the time! So it was a bit more difficult to completely commit myself to the physical side of that scene, because there was also so much going on emotionally as well. So it was pretty draining.
MMM: How did you find it mentally? Did it take quite a bit of switching off when you went home at night?
Ronan: I think it did through the whole thing. Particularly when I started the movie it upset me quite a bit because I think – if you have a heart at all – if you’re living through that experience for about 8 months of your life it’s going to get in there sometimes… and it did.
I used to think about how horrible this can be if it strikes some family. And because I was so close to the character I got pretty upset over that. But that scene wasn’t actually too bad. I think that because it was so intense, I sort of needed to go back to myself and it was easier to just be myself again when I went home.
Saoirse with on-screen dad Mark Wahlberg
By film journalist Jan Gilbert
