She may only be 15 years old, but Irish actress Saoirse Ronan really knows how to choose her movie projects. First she was nominated for an Oscar in 2008 for her role in Atonement and now she’s getting a lot of attention for her latest film The Lovely Bones.
Ronan next will be reteaming with Atonement director Joe Wright again shortly for Focus Features’ Hanna. ComingSoon.net talked exclusively to the actress about the role at the 25th Annual Santa Barbara International Film Festival, where she received the Virtuoso Award.
“I’m doing a film with Joe Wright again called ‘Hanna,'” Ronan told us on the red carpet before she accepted her award. The film starts shooting in March and it’s a much different character than Ronan’s played before.
“She’s this young girl who has basically been trained her whole life by her father to kill,” she added. “It should be good fun and I’m training for it in martial arts. It’s tough but I really like it and enjoy it. I do two hours in the gym and then I do about two hours of martial arts.”
Ronan hasn’t seen Wright since she did Atonement and is excited to work with him again.
“I like lots about Joe. He’s just a very involved director. He’s extremely creative. It’s been four years since I’ve worked with him. It will be wonderful to work with him again. I love him as a person. He’s a very fun guy to be around and really cares about his art and puts everything into his movies. He really believes in this film as well.”
She couldn’t give many details about the upcoming project, but did say: “I wouldn’t call it an action movie. It’s a movie that has a lot of action in it. It goes quite deep as to where Hanna comes from and what she’s all about. To me, it doesn’t seem like your typical action film or action hero. She’s a very interesting character and I think she’s going to be very interesting to play.”
Eric Bana will play her father in the film, written by Seth Lochhead and David Farr.
Ronan was given the Virtuoso Award along with Emily Blunt for The Young Victorian, Carey Mulligan for An Education, Gabourey Sidibe for Precious: Based on the Novel “Push” by Sapphire, and Michael Stuhlbarg for A Serious Man.
