Rising Stars: Saoirse Ronan

"Be the person I'm playing. That's what acting is. You're pretending to be someone else."

I noticed I haven't written anything in this feature for a while. Also as with Performances I Love it seems to be dominated by women. I don't even know why that is and I will try to change it soon, but not just yet. Saoirse Ronan seems to be involved in a lot of projects nowadays and the new trailers for Byzantium and Violet and Daisy were released recently, so she is the star of today's post.

Saoirse Una Ronan was born on April 12th 1994 to  parents Paul and Monica Ronan in New York City. Although she was born in the United States, Saoirse moved to Ardattin, Ireland with her parents when she was 3 years old. Her father, Paul Ronan, is an actor in his own right, starring in films like The Devil's Own with Brad Pitt. As a baby, Saoirse accompanied her father to the set of that movie and was carried and held by Pitt.
Her first name is Irish and means "freedom". Her last name means "little seal". Saoirse seems like a normal girl, despite her success - she has a border collie dog named Sassy and she loves to play Farmville. She is currently homeschooled but she plans on pursuing her love for film and study it in the future as well as direct movies.

Saoirse posses very unique, natural kind of beauty. Her blue, pale eyes are mesmerizing. Most of her photoshoots are some of the best I have ever seen as she is usually surrounded by Celtic elements, grass, flowers and nature that seems to amplify her pure charm.
Her breakthrough role was in Atonement where she was as good as more experienced and older actors in the film. She was barely thirteen there yet she brought so much complexity to her role and even though her screen time wasn't that long, she was extremely memorable. Ronan received Oscar nomination for her work, making her one of the youngest Oscar nominees in history.

Her another big role was in disappointing The Lovely Bones but she was so good it nearly rescued the movie. Without her and excellent Stanley Tucci I'm pretty sure it would be unwatchable.

She also appeared in Peter Wieir's The Way Back and Joe Wright's thriller Hanna where she was very convincing as a teenage killing machine. Saoirse has this way of bringing subtlety to her roles, no matter who she is playing and even though Hanna was dangerous and deadly, you could still see innocent girl beneath all of that.
I think Saoirse panicked a little which led her to star in The Host, based on the novel by Stephanie Meyer, the same one who brought us Twilight. Perhaps she felt she needed a big, popular movie. I don't know how well The Host is doing and if it's performance in box office will guarantee sequels but it seems not to be doing as well as everyone involved hoped.

Fortunately, Saoirse has a bunch of diverse projects in the future. In June we will see her as a vampire in Neil Jordan's Byzantium.  Then there is Violet & Daisy, where she and Alexis Bledel play young assassins. The movie is waiting for theatrical release.

We will see her in new Wes Anderson movie The Grand Budapest Hotel opposite Ralph Fiennes, Adrien Brody and Tilda Swinton and in Ryan Gosling's How to Catch a Monster. I'm not sure Mary Queen of Scots movie is still happening but I'd love to see Saoirse in the lead role.

From the top: Violet & Daisy, Byzantium, The Way Back, The Host, Hanna, The Lovely Bones, Atonement
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