Interview: The Lovely Bones' Saoirse Ronan

recess' Emily Ackerman recently spoke with The Lovely Bones star Saoirse Ronan on a college conference call. Ronan sounded off on the dark roles in which she's often cast, what is was like to be nominated for an Oscar at such a young age and her thoughts of Hannah Montana and The Hobbit.

Read the full transcript of all the participants' questions and Ronan's responses after the jump.

Do you interpret her more through like the screenplay that you read, or through your analysis of the novel, and do you ever find yourself having conflicts with the director about the interpretation of current director?

Well, I would focus more on the character and the screenplay instead of the book because it’s a different version of telling the story. It’s the film version, so yeah, I’m going to focus on that a little bit more. But, still it’s (handy) to be, you know, making movies that were based on books as well. No, I haven’t had any conflicts really with the directors that I’ve worked with, so I’ve been very lucky. We’ve been on the same page. We’ve gotten on really well, so no, we’ve understood each other. I’m good.

Are there any similarities between you and the character Susie Salmon regarding your personality that you can think of?

Yeah, there’s a few. I mean, Susie’s a typical teenage girl, so I think that hopefully when girls go and see this movie, they’re going to connect with her in some way. But, yeah, I mean, you know, she’s interested in photography and fashion, and things like that, and boys of course, so I’m interested in all those things. Yeah.

How have your roles in Atonement and The Lovely Bones influenced your outlook on life?

You know, I find sometimes it’s quite easy to be the opposite to how you are in real life for me. I don’t know what it is. Maybe it’s just because it’s not somewhere that I go very often. It’s - the door is always open for me to go there. So, yeah, I mean, it’s just - it just take a lot of thinking and, you know, I really understood Susie and Peter who’s obviously involved. We were on the same page and we have the same outlook on what she was going to be like and everything. So, yeah, it just took a lot of thinking.

What was it like to be nominated for an Academy Award at such a young age?

It was - oh, it was crazy. I was working - I was actually on Lovely Bones at the time, so I was very busy with that. And then, suddenly this thing happened and it was exciting, and it was kind of nerve-wracking and - but you know, it was great and it was a great honor for me to be nominated so young and it was a film that I really enjoyed doing. So, yeah, I was really, really happy.

On that same note, how have you responded to all of the attention that The Lovely Bones has been getting in regards to awards speculation?

To be honest, I try not to think about award season at all, especially when it concerns a movie that I’ve made. I think, you know, nobody - none of the press have actually seen the movie yet, so it’s not fair to say, but it’s great that they’re putting it at such a high level already. Hopefully it does well. I just really hope that everyone enjoys it. That they connect to it as much as they did with the book. So, if awards come as well, then that’s brilliant.

Were there any other characters or performances that you drew on when you were preparing for the role of Susie Salmon?

No, not really. She’s - I mean, she’s a typical teenage girl, so she’s very similar to myself and my friends, and you know, girls I’ve seen on the TV, so yeah, I just - it was very easy to -- in a way -- become a sort of friend of hers, you know? She’s a very happy person, so it was easy to go there.

What was it like to film the Heaven scenes?

It was kind of a little bit surreal at first because it was all blue screen and I hadn’t worked with that much blue screen before. Only a little bit. And most of Heaven was going to be put in afterwards. So, it was sometimes difficult to try and imagine what it was going to be like, what it was going to look like. We obviously had an idea in our head of what the basic picture of it was going to be. But, it, you know, it was great and I saw the movie a few days ago and it was a lovely surprise to finally see Heaven.

Based on that, did you incorporate any of your particular versions of what you might think the afterlife might look like with the directors at all?

No, not really. I think what their plans for Heaven seemed to work really well and I didn’t really want to play around with that at all, you know, its elements. It’s Susie’s life on Earth that have created her in between things that she was connected to in some way, and I think it was very logical thing to do. It made sense. So, yeah, so I think they knew what they were doing, so I just left them to it.

What should viewers learn and take away from this film?

Well, I think that the message of this movie, although it may not seem like it to people who haven’t seen it yet, is ultimately hope, and how you get there. You know, when Susie arrives in the in-between, she doesn’t want to go forward, which would mean accepting her death. She wants to be back on Earth with her family and she knows she can’t do that. And to get there, you know, it’s about her love for her family and not the hate and vengeance that she has for her murder.

You worked with Fran Walsh and Peter Jackson, how was it working with them?

I absolutely loved working with them. They were - they’re brilliant. They’re partners, so they’re together all the time pretty much. And Fran is one of the kindest, sweetest women I have ever met. I love her. She’s funny. She’s creative. She’s just wonderful. And Pete and her are like a rock. They’re just great together, and of course, I love working with Pete as well, as director and as a friend.

I was just interested in how involved Jackson is with his actors, like does he basically let you do your own thing or does he have a very set way of the way he wants things done?

No, he’s pretty involved. He’s - I mean, he’ll let you be free to - if you want to try something out he’s, you know, he’s very welcoming towards that kind of approach. But, he likes to be very involved with his actors and he’s always there. He’s always up and ready to go and he was great because he would kind of act through what we were going to do, which made me and the girl who played Holly, it made us laugh sometimes. He was just great. But, yeah, he was very hands on.

You’ve done a lot of serious roles and I wanted to know why you haven’t gone in a lighter route like some of your peers, like the Hannah Montana type?

Well, I don’t think I’m really that kind of actor anyway. I’ll leave Miley Cyrus to that. But, I think you’re right. I think it’s important that I do something a little bit more lighthearted. I mean, you know, the first movie that I made was a romcom and it was funny and lighthearted, so yeah, it’s important for me to do something like that and, you know, there’s a few scripts that aren’t quite as serious as what I’ve done so far. So, hopefully they’ll work out and you’ll see me on a lighter note.

You’re already such a successful actress at such a young age, so did working on this film with some of the other more experienced actors help you kind of carry away something with - in regards to your acting skills that you can use maybe in your future films and your future works of art?

I think it’s just the way they are on set. I mean, I’ve worked with a lot of actors that just have a really good approach with - to working with other people to being with other people every day, and you need that when you’re working on a movie. You become a family unit, so it’s very important to get on with everyone. And it’s not as much with acting itself because everyone kind of has their own thing that they do. So, the people that I’ve worked with have been very respectful towards me and they know that I have my own thing going on. So, it’s more just the attitude that they have on set and the etiquette and that’s, you know, I’ve taken that away.

(Duke) I was wondering when you first - if you read the book before you became involved in the production, and if so what was your initial reaction to the book when you first read it?

Well, I actually waited to read it after I had made the movie. I just really wanted to focus on the screenplay version, and also I felt like I was a little bit too young to read it at the time, I was 13. So - as you know the book is little bit more visual and a bit more violent than the film, so it just made sense. But, I read the book this year for the first time and I absolutely loved it. I felt every emotion possible. And I think because I had been through the whole experience of making the movie and living through the story, I think that helps me to really connect with the book, and to understand the book fully.

At a very young age you had the opportunity to work with a whole bunch of prestigious actors. Is there any chance on a set whenever you get star struck when you first started on the film? Is there any actor that you’ve been a huge fan of and became a kind of star struck person?

No, I’ve never really been star struck. Like, I’ve never been speechless or anything like that. I don’t think I could do that anyway, you know, I’m Irish, but I was pretty excited. I’m actually - I usually get very excited when I meet people around my own age, whether they’re well known or not. But, no, I’ve never really been star struck. It was great to meet Peter though for the first time.

So, you said that you haven’t really done a part like this before. Is there anything that has prepared you for something - for a character that has so many serious things happen to her?

No. I mean, I don’t know. It’s really about putting yourself in the position. I suppose I was able to understand her pretty well and I think what I thought about was something I loved so dearly being taken away from me. And although luckily that hasn’t happened to me yet, I was able to put myself there. But, I haven’t really taken anything from anywhere else. It’s just been that one thing. And plus, the story itself kind of makes you go there as well because I think anyone with a heart is going to be affected by it in some way, good or bad.

I was just wondering since you’ve done Atonement and City of Ember, they’re all very different, and I was wondering if there was a particular genre that you find yourself drawn to when portraying a character?

No, not particularly. I mean, you know, as long as the script is good, which so far they have been, I’ll, you know, I’ll be interested in it. It’s just so happens -- I suppose -- that I’ve been doing quite a bit of drama. But, you know, I’ve been reading some really great scripts that are comedy and that are a little bit more lighthearted. So, yeah, just so long as the writing’s good, I’m there.

I was just wondering, as a young actress what attracts you to the darker roles that you’ve been playing in The Lovely Bones and also in Atonement?

Well, I’m not - I mean, I’m not particularly attracted to dark roles, well, you know, I am. I suppose with Atonement and The Lovely Bones it just kind of worked out that way. But, I love the depth to them. I love just their thinking process -- I suppose -- especially with Atonement. And it just, you know, it takes a lot of thinking to really understand those kind of characters. There’s a lot of parts now where it’s very easy to just be the happy girl, and you know, there are some great characters at the moment who are more than that, and who are also very uplifting, like Susie Salmon. So, yeah, it just really depends

You’ve done movies that are adapted from well known and critically acclaimed novels, so do you have a favorite fictional character from a book in mind that you would love to play?

Hmm? I’m trying to think. I don’t know. There’s quite a lot and this is an extremely strange answer that I’m going to give you, but I really, really love the book “The Hobbit” and I think Bilbo is such a great character. And in a way, I wish that he was a girl, so I could play him. I just think he’s great. But, I - no, I can’t really think of any female characters at the moment, sorry to say.

The press reports that have been out yet, have said that there’s a rape scene in the book is not in the movie. Do you think it changes the way the adaptation kind of portrays the books, or are you - what are your feelings on that topic?

No, I don’t think it changes at all, really. I think if anything it makes it stronger because I think it’s kind of the easy route to put that kind of scene in. It can make people uncomfortable. It can make people too disturbed. And I find that if they do it the way that we did in The Lovely Bones, which was a very tasteful way to do it -- I think -- is to just leave it up to the audiences imagination, and to let them think of it for themselves and sometimes that can even be stronger. And so, no, I don’t think it took away from the story at all.