OSCAR shortlist day brings out the patriot in us all. We love to see an Irish name in the running for an Academy Award. The Sheridans alongside the Scorseses. The Neesons taking on the Nicholsons.
So it was disappointing that Saoirse Ronan was passed over in the Best Actress category yesterday. The supremely talented 15-year-old from Carlow had been tipped for recognition of her performance as a murdered young girl in The Lovely Bones.
I hope she is not too downhearted – but I’m not altogether sorry that she has missed out. That is neither begrudgery nor jealousy speaking. (Although her great success so far does make me wonder what the hell I did with the first 15 years of my life.)
Saoirse, who already had an Oscar nomination for Best Supporting Actress under her belt at 13, has nothing to prove. Since the Lovely Bones, she has shot a movie with Colin Farrell and is about to shoot another with Atonement director Joe Wright. To
say she has a future in film is an understatement.
But the spotlight is an even more intense place for her two years on. She is no longer the child who wore a green dress to the Oscars because she wanted everyone to know she was Irish. At the Dublin premiere of The Lovely Bones last week, she looked every inch the lovely young woman. She wore fabulous Nina Divito high heels and a glittering black dress.
It’s that cusp of teenagehood where she begins to look womanly – but at 15, she is very much still a child. Her parents, Paul and Monica, are protective of her. Under their guidance, Saoirse is unlikely to start drinking the hotel minibar dry or turning into a nightclub-hopper like Lindsay Lohan.
There is, however, only so much Saoirse can be protected from, given the industry she is in. Her friend Sarah Bolger – who starred in Jim Sheridan’s In America as a 10-year-old and whose star is also on the up - has spoken of how she was offered inappropriate scripts when she was still 16. When I interviewed her last year, she explained: “These scripts were coming up for me even two years ago that had stuff in them that would be just a little dodgy.”
And just because she has turned 18, reporters apparently think it’s okay to ask her about sex.
“It's madness,” she said. “This interviewer asked, ‘So who would you like to jump into bed with?’ We had been talking about Jonathan Rhys-Meyers (with whom she stars in The Tudors), so I'm sure he just wanted me to say him.”
Even Saoirse’s acclaimed role in The Lovely Bones could have presented her with a very grown-up dilemma. In the book on which it is based, her character endures a terrible sexual assault before she is killed. Thankfully, the film’s director Peter Jackson decided such graphic detail was not needed for the screen version. As time goes on, will Saoirse confront less understanding directors and producers?
It’s wonderful to see our two lovely girls grow up so beautifully on camera but we can’t forget that they are still fragile teenagers. It’s a tough enough phase of life as it is – without the added pressure of having to cope with adult expectations and pervy interviewers.
We might heed the words of the first real child star, Shirley Temple, and her poignant reminder that fame made her grow up too fast, too soon.
“I stopped believing in Santa Claus when I was six,” she once said. “Mother took me to see him in a department store and he asked for my autograph.”
It’s not as salacious as the cautionary tale of Drew Barrymore, the little girl from ET who was drinking at the age of 9, taking cocaine by 11 and in rehab at 13. The moral of their stories are the same though: being thrust into the public eye at a young age hastens the death of innocence.
If missing out on the Oscars carousel for a year gives Saoirse more time to go home and play with her beloved dog Sassie and hang out with her mates, then it will be time well spent.
THIS is the extended version of the op-ed I had published in yesterday's Evening Herald at http://www.herald.ie/opinion/sorry-saoirse-missed-out-but-let-her-be-a-teenager-a-while-2045703.html
Showing posts with label Saoirse Ronan. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Saoirse Ronan. Show all posts
Thursday, February 4, 2010
Wednesday, January 27, 2010
Sir-sha, Seer-shan, Saar-sheen... sorry, Saoirse
From today's Irish Independent - now here's a 15-year-old to make you wonder how you spent your wasted youth....
http://www.independent.ie/lifestyle/how-our-saoirse-signed-for-the--premiere-league-2033041.html
By Susan Daly
Wednesday January 27 2010
It should have been difficult for Saoirse Ronan to play the victim in her new film. The 15-year-old has known little but success in her short life. She starred in a major Hollywood movie, Atonement, at 11; was nominated for an Oscar at 13.
A few days ago, she was shortlisted for a BAFTA for Best Actress -- her competition is Meryl Streep. Days before that, she waltzed off with the award for Best Young Actor at the prestigious Critics' Circle bash in Hollywood.
Susie Salmon, the Lovely Bones character that has won Ronan the most recent accolades, is raped and murdered by her pervert neighbour. Although audiences are spared the graphic details, it's an intense role for anyone to play, never mind a teenager from rural Carlow.
And yet Saoirse ended up comforting Stanley Tucci, the Devil Wears Prada actor who has the thankless job of playing Susie's murderer. "It turned out she's the one who really in some ways made us all feel comfortable because she's so mature," he said of his co-star.
That's our Saoirse -- all grown up. As The Lovely Bones premieres in Dublin, it hardly seems four years since she landed her first major Hollywood role. Back then she put the tiny village of Ardattin, outside Tullow, on the showbiz map by bagging the part of Keira Knightley's complex little sister Briony in Atonement. She had previously only had two small parts on Irish television, in The Clinic and Proof.
And can it be only two years since Hollywood scrambled to find out how to pronounce 'Saoirse' after her shock nomination for Best Actress for her role Briony Tallis in Atonement? (Hollywood still fails miserably to get its mouth around her first name.)
The dizzy ascension from Carlow to California could make a child grow up fast. Atonement was followed by roles opposite Catherine Zeta Jones and Michelle Pfeiffer. She will next be seen in The Way Back with Colin Farrell and after that, playing an Eastern European assassin called Hanna. From murder victim to would-be murderer.
Thankfully, it appears that Ronan is as Tucci claims: mature rather than preternaturally aged by her experiences. Although she has been glamming up for The Lovely Bones premieres from New Zealand to New York, her gorgeous gunas have been age-appropriate. In promotional interviews for the film, she opts for the teenage uniform of jeans and her favourite Nike high-tops.
When Vanity Fair photographed her last year, she wore a red satin dress but teamed it with a pair of white Converse trainers. It was the perfect portrait of someone successfully negotiating the line between young girl and young adulthood.
So much of this level-headedness must be down to her parents, Paul and Monica. "They come everywhere with me, and they're a huge part of keeping me grounded,'' Saoirse told The LA Times. "And living in the country in Ireland, which is so far away from the Hollywood scene, keeps me from getting caught up. Nobody where I live is interested in that side of things, really."
Her parents emigrated to New York in the 1980s, returning to Ireland in 1997 when Saoirse was three. Paul, an experienced character actor, encouraged his creative only child to try acting when she was around eight or nine, for a "lark".
She wasn't a stage school brat, yearning for stardom. They sent a tape of Saoirse auditioning at home to the casting director for Atonement and that was it. Her career went stellar -- but her feet stayed on the ground.
"She still has the friends she would have made in school here," says Paddy McInerney, Principal of Ardattin National School, which Saoirse attended. "She meets up with them whenever she's home.
"And the children now follow her with interest -- they're excited when she appears in magazines or on television. But she's been back to attend a couple of things since she left -- she was here when we were opening an extension to the school a while back, for Confirmations, for Christmas events."
Saoirse had a normal, consistent childhood, he believes. "It was really only in fifth class when she started to film Atonement and a few other films that things began to take off for her," Mr McInerney told the Irish Independent.
"So her last two years with us were intermittent, but she had a tutor on set. She had her textbooks we were using and the tutor was in touch with us. She was a very good student, very bright, so she kept up very well."
She now has a home tutor as she combines her last few years of schooling with the growing demands of an A-list career but she's making a good fist of keeping it real. Far from trying to take advantage of her fame -- she claimed last week to be grateful she's not as famous as the "Twilight people or the Harry Potter kids" -- she is a teenager to a tee.
She's not falling out of LA nightclubs -- TV and computer games and playing with her old border collie dog Sassie are her past-times.
She has professed concern about whether boys are interested in her, or in "Saoirse Ronan the actress". But she also converses freely with pals on the social networking site Twitter.
In one tweet, she raves breathlessly about the new Lady Gaga album; in the next, she urges friends to "Go see The Lovely Bones guys!! Hope you like it!!" An uninformed reader would think she was recommending a film she saw down the omniplex with her mates last night. There is a hint that there might be something more to this 15-year-old. Her friend Katie has posted a picture of the pair hugging fiercely on a night out. Teen girls are nuts about their friends.
But look a little closer. Katie's dad is standing in the background. He looks familiar: it's Peter Jackson, director of Lord of the Rings trilogy and The Lovely Bones. And he's talking to Steven Spielberg. Normality is relative.
http://www.independent.ie/lifestyle/starlight-starbright-five-ways-we-can-tell-saoirse-is-on-the-rise-2033039.html
Starlight, starbright: Five ways we can tell Saoirse is on the rise
IT WAS WRITTEN IN THE STARS
Saoirse's first brush with fame came early when her dad Paul was acting in The Devil's Own (1997). He brought her on set to meet the leading man, Brad Pitt, who picked Saoirse up in his arms.
Saoirse doesn't remember that fateful moment -- she was just a toddler -- but clearly some of Brad's star quality must have rubbed off on her.
SHE HAS SCHEDULE 'CLASHES'
Saoirse was in the original line-up for Ridley Scott's upcoming blockbuster Robin Hood alongside Russell Crowe and Cate Blanchett but, as happens to those in demand, ended up having to choose between Scott and Peter Weir, who wanted her for his new film The Way Back.
She plumped for the latter, which also stars Colin Farrell, Ed Harris and Jim Sturgess. Tough choice, eh?
THE BRITS HAVE CLAIMED HER
You know an Irish performer's international stock is high when the Brits start claiming them for their own. And so it is with Saoirse, who has been nominated by the London Film Critics' Circle 2010 Awards as Young British Performer of the Year for her role in The Lovely Bones.
The Critics' Circle's website has tried to clarify the matter, posting the following on their website: "Irish citizens are eligible for these awards but many Irish actors and directors work on what are technically British films and their work deserves recognition."
The Lovely Bones is a film based on a novel by an American author, directed by a New Zealander and produced by Steven Spielberg's company (but co-produced by FilmFour, which must make it 'technically British').
SHE'S A LITTLE PIECE OF OSCAR HISTORY
By being nominated for the Oscar for best supporting actress in 2008 -- for her role as Briony in Atonement -- Saoirse joined an elite group. At 13, she became the seventh youngest actress to be nominated in that key category.
MERYL STREEP'S A FAN
If Meryl is Queen of Hollywood, she gave the royal stamp of approval to Saoirse at the Critics' Choice Awards in LA. She swept the 15-year-old into her arms for a huge bear hug after Saoirse won the Best Young Actor gong.
Hopefully Meryl felt as friendly when Saoirse became her competition six days later, with both of them nominated for Best Actress in the upcoming BAFTAs ...
http://www.independent.ie/lifestyle/how-our-saoirse-signed-for-the--premiere-league-2033041.html
By Susan Daly
Wednesday January 27 2010
It should have been difficult for Saoirse Ronan to play the victim in her new film. The 15-year-old has known little but success in her short life. She starred in a major Hollywood movie, Atonement, at 11; was nominated for an Oscar at 13.
A few days ago, she was shortlisted for a BAFTA for Best Actress -- her competition is Meryl Streep. Days before that, she waltzed off with the award for Best Young Actor at the prestigious Critics' Circle bash in Hollywood.
Susie Salmon, the Lovely Bones character that has won Ronan the most recent accolades, is raped and murdered by her pervert neighbour. Although audiences are spared the graphic details, it's an intense role for anyone to play, never mind a teenager from rural Carlow.
And yet Saoirse ended up comforting Stanley Tucci, the Devil Wears Prada actor who has the thankless job of playing Susie's murderer. "It turned out she's the one who really in some ways made us all feel comfortable because she's so mature," he said of his co-star.
That's our Saoirse -- all grown up. As The Lovely Bones premieres in Dublin, it hardly seems four years since she landed her first major Hollywood role. Back then she put the tiny village of Ardattin, outside Tullow, on the showbiz map by bagging the part of Keira Knightley's complex little sister Briony in Atonement. She had previously only had two small parts on Irish television, in The Clinic and Proof.
And can it be only two years since Hollywood scrambled to find out how to pronounce 'Saoirse' after her shock nomination for Best Actress for her role Briony Tallis in Atonement? (Hollywood still fails miserably to get its mouth around her first name.)
The dizzy ascension from Carlow to California could make a child grow up fast. Atonement was followed by roles opposite Catherine Zeta Jones and Michelle Pfeiffer. She will next be seen in The Way Back with Colin Farrell and after that, playing an Eastern European assassin called Hanna. From murder victim to would-be murderer.
Thankfully, it appears that Ronan is as Tucci claims: mature rather than preternaturally aged by her experiences. Although she has been glamming up for The Lovely Bones premieres from New Zealand to New York, her gorgeous gunas have been age-appropriate. In promotional interviews for the film, she opts for the teenage uniform of jeans and her favourite Nike high-tops.
When Vanity Fair photographed her last year, she wore a red satin dress but teamed it with a pair of white Converse trainers. It was the perfect portrait of someone successfully negotiating the line between young girl and young adulthood.
So much of this level-headedness must be down to her parents, Paul and Monica. "They come everywhere with me, and they're a huge part of keeping me grounded,'' Saoirse told The LA Times. "And living in the country in Ireland, which is so far away from the Hollywood scene, keeps me from getting caught up. Nobody where I live is interested in that side of things, really."
Her parents emigrated to New York in the 1980s, returning to Ireland in 1997 when Saoirse was three. Paul, an experienced character actor, encouraged his creative only child to try acting when she was around eight or nine, for a "lark".
She wasn't a stage school brat, yearning for stardom. They sent a tape of Saoirse auditioning at home to the casting director for Atonement and that was it. Her career went stellar -- but her feet stayed on the ground.
"She still has the friends she would have made in school here," says Paddy McInerney, Principal of Ardattin National School, which Saoirse attended. "She meets up with them whenever she's home.
"And the children now follow her with interest -- they're excited when she appears in magazines or on television. But she's been back to attend a couple of things since she left -- she was here when we were opening an extension to the school a while back, for Confirmations, for Christmas events."
Saoirse had a normal, consistent childhood, he believes. "It was really only in fifth class when she started to film Atonement and a few other films that things began to take off for her," Mr McInerney told the Irish Independent.
"So her last two years with us were intermittent, but she had a tutor on set. She had her textbooks we were using and the tutor was in touch with us. She was a very good student, very bright, so she kept up very well."
She now has a home tutor as she combines her last few years of schooling with the growing demands of an A-list career but she's making a good fist of keeping it real. Far from trying to take advantage of her fame -- she claimed last week to be grateful she's not as famous as the "Twilight people or the Harry Potter kids" -- she is a teenager to a tee.
She's not falling out of LA nightclubs -- TV and computer games and playing with her old border collie dog Sassie are her past-times.
She has professed concern about whether boys are interested in her, or in "Saoirse Ronan the actress". But she also converses freely with pals on the social networking site Twitter.
In one tweet, she raves breathlessly about the new Lady Gaga album; in the next, she urges friends to "Go see The Lovely Bones guys!! Hope you like it!!" An uninformed reader would think she was recommending a film she saw down the omniplex with her mates last night. There is a hint that there might be something more to this 15-year-old. Her friend Katie has posted a picture of the pair hugging fiercely on a night out. Teen girls are nuts about their friends.
But look a little closer. Katie's dad is standing in the background. He looks familiar: it's Peter Jackson, director of Lord of the Rings trilogy and The Lovely Bones. And he's talking to Steven Spielberg. Normality is relative.
http://www.independent.ie/lifestyle/starlight-starbright-five-ways-we-can-tell-saoirse-is-on-the-rise-2033039.html
Starlight, starbright: Five ways we can tell Saoirse is on the rise
IT WAS WRITTEN IN THE STARS
Saoirse's first brush with fame came early when her dad Paul was acting in The Devil's Own (1997). He brought her on set to meet the leading man, Brad Pitt, who picked Saoirse up in his arms.
Saoirse doesn't remember that fateful moment -- she was just a toddler -- but clearly some of Brad's star quality must have rubbed off on her.
SHE HAS SCHEDULE 'CLASHES'
Saoirse was in the original line-up for Ridley Scott's upcoming blockbuster Robin Hood alongside Russell Crowe and Cate Blanchett but, as happens to those in demand, ended up having to choose between Scott and Peter Weir, who wanted her for his new film The Way Back.
She plumped for the latter, which also stars Colin Farrell, Ed Harris and Jim Sturgess. Tough choice, eh?
THE BRITS HAVE CLAIMED HER
You know an Irish performer's international stock is high when the Brits start claiming them for their own. And so it is with Saoirse, who has been nominated by the London Film Critics' Circle 2010 Awards as Young British Performer of the Year for her role in The Lovely Bones.
The Critics' Circle's website has tried to clarify the matter, posting the following on their website: "Irish citizens are eligible for these awards but many Irish actors and directors work on what are technically British films and their work deserves recognition."
The Lovely Bones is a film based on a novel by an American author, directed by a New Zealander and produced by Steven Spielberg's company (but co-produced by FilmFour, which must make it 'technically British').
SHE'S A LITTLE PIECE OF OSCAR HISTORY
By being nominated for the Oscar for best supporting actress in 2008 -- for her role as Briony in Atonement -- Saoirse joined an elite group. At 13, she became the seventh youngest actress to be nominated in that key category.
MERYL STREEP'S A FAN
If Meryl is Queen of Hollywood, she gave the royal stamp of approval to Saoirse at the Critics' Choice Awards in LA. She swept the 15-year-old into her arms for a huge bear hug after Saoirse won the Best Young Actor gong.
Hopefully Meryl felt as friendly when Saoirse became her competition six days later, with both of them nominated for Best Actress in the upcoming BAFTAs ...
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