Saoirse Ronan has headlined a couple of memorable coming-of-age films – Lady Bird (2017) and Little Women (2019) – both helmed by Greta Gerwig. However, in her next film, Steve McQueen’s Blitz, she takes a step back and lets another character enjoy their coming-of-age arc. She plays Rita, the mother of George, a 9-year-old Black kid in London of 1940 during World War II. In an interview with Hindustan Times, the actor opens up on her evolution into a selfless mother from the troubled, conflicted daughter she’s played so earnestly in the past. (Also Read – Steve McQueen interview on Blitz: We should be truthful to children about war, there’s no fairy tale here)
Coming of age as an actor
“I’ve had such beautiful experiences being a part of coming-of-age stories myself when that realisation is happening to my character. I’ve really enjoyed that. But I’ve done a lot of that. To watch another young person get to live that for themselves, not just as a kid but also as an actor, it’s a lovely thing to be a part of, a lovely thing to support,” says Saoirse, referring to Elliott Heffernan, who plays the protagonist George in Blitz. Steve McQueen also agrees that the fact that Saoirse was also 9 years old when she began her journey as an actor also made her develop a soft corner for Elliott.
“We just got along really well from the beginning. It definitely helped both of us that I have been in his shoes. I still remember vividly what it felt to be on set in those first couple of films. How important that moment was in my life, and how it shaped me as an actor and as a person in a lot of ways. I know it’s a formative time for any person, especially when you’re given so much responsibility. To have other people around who can understand you hopefully made him feel even more safe,” says Saoirse. However, she believes Hollywood is age-agnostic. “You really are treated as just another member of the crew, which I think is great. That’s how I felt about Elliott. It didn’t feel like we had to make any allowances on set just because he’s a kid,” she adds.
Having made her debut as a child artiste in I Could Never Be Your Woman in 2007, Saoirse has often felt like she was plucked out of a family and planted into another as she hopped from one film set to another. “If you’re taken away, it can mess with you. I understand that because there’s this readymade family in every project, and then that’s over. So it’s quite an intense experience, but I love the organised chaos of it all. Now that I step into the role of a filmmaker, I’m more open to learning how different departments work. I’m more inquisitive than I used to be. So you’re constantly being educated about the work you do,” says Saoirse. She turned producer with The Outrun earlier this year, which was made under her banner Arcade Pictures.
While she wasn’t a producer on Blitz, Saoirse says her relationship with Steve McQueen has been built on collaboration right from the beginning. “He was so interested in me, where I come from, and my own relationship with my mother. There were conversations with him that ended up almost shaping who Rita was and what her relationship was like with her little boy. It really felt like you were being listened to as an actor for sure,” she says. Saoirse feels that Steve “definitely doesn’t take any bullsh*t” on set, but is extremely protective of his actors. “I think he values what an actor brings to the project, more than any other department really. I’m not sure if it comes from his time as a visual artist, and how the relationship between the artist and the subject is sacred and precious,” Saoirse says.
She claims Blitz is steeped “in true Steve McQueen fashion” because there’s a “fresh take on a story we thought we knew very well.” “We took two wartime stories we’re familiar with – family and fighting – and brought them together in a really beautiful way. When you’re with one, you’re always thinking about the other,” Saoirse points out. It greatly helped that George’s equation with Rita mirrored her own relationship with her mother. “We can talk like peers. We’re like sisters in a lot of ways. I’m an only child so that one-on-one relationship was so important in my life, and has really, really shaped me. It’s a similar dynamic between the two characters. It’s only those two and her father who make up a family. Neither of them has that relationship with anybody else. It’s so precious to them. It’s so much a part of who they are,” says Saoirse.
Historicals and musicals
Besides the family angle, Saoirse also greatly enjoyed the musical bits of Blitz. In a key sequence, she had to belt out a song at an ammunition factory in front of 450 women. “The fact that it was a sea of women in that ammunition factory just made it very poignant. Also, the scene is about the performance, but also about what comes after.” Rita’s fellow workers come on stage to voice their concern about how members of the public are being treated during World War II. “It was a real moment of liberation, rebellion, revolution, and coming together of women. It was very special,” adds Saoirse.
The only concern Steve McQueen had about casting Saoirse was if she could sing, and he was happy to report that she “sings like a bird.” Saoirse worked with a voice coach for months to prepare for the sequence leading upto the shoot. “To actually perform it in front of a crowd like that was the closest I could come to being live on stage, to have your own concert. It was terrifying, but also really wonderful,” she recalls. Now that she’s past the experience, would she like to do a musical? “I’ve always said I wanted to. That is a real dream of mine. I would love to do it with Greta. Greta has gone musical, and I think she wants to do that. It’d be fun to do it with her. I don’t think I’d be good enough to do it on stage, but certainly in a film,” Saoirse says.
After collaborating with Greta on Oscar-nominated coming-of-age movies like Lady Bird and Little Women, it’d make sense for Saoirse to now work with Greta on a musical, especially after the filmmaker aced the genre with the $1 billion-grossing Barbie last year. Saoirse also wants to do more contemporary movies since she’s mostly been offered period dramas yet, from Mary Queen of Scots to Ammonite. “It’s just been coincidence that I’ve done quite a few period pieces. A lot of what gets made is usually period stuff. That’s usually down to the fact that a piece of IP that people would want to remake again and again. Historicals have been researched again and again, so there are many narratives that can be pulled out of that,” she reasons.
She’d love to mix up the genres now, particularly because contemporary movies allow her a free hand. “There’s so much I can access in a modern-day film. I don’t get to do modern-day movies as much as I’d like. There’s just a freedom you have. You don’t have to filter as much. So much of it is improvised that I don’t have to double-check if something is accurate for the time, or if there are some mannerisms or words that hadn’t even been invented yet. I remember when I made Brooklyn (set in 1951) as well, there were certain words that no one had spoken till then. So you got to have one eye on that and do separate prep for time periods when you’re working on the past. So it was nice to not think about that on The Outrun,” says Saoirse.
Both The Outrun and Blitz have been generating tremendous Oscar buzz for Saoirse. The actor is not new to the Academy Awards, as she’s the second youngest person to accrue four Oscar nominations, behind only Jennifer Lawrence. Her last nomination, for Little Women, was five years ago, and she claims she isn’t craving as much for more. “I don’t feel as much pressure now as probably I used to. I’ve been very fortunate enough to experience that journey a few times now. I can be pretty realistic about it because things can change overnight. So I always take it as it comes,” Saoirse says. She just hopes the Oscar chatter gets people curious enough for them to visit theatres and give her films a chance.
Saoirse had a secret marriage with her Mary Queen of Scots co-star Jack Lowden earlier this year, which has also shifted something within. She believes that like her Blitz character Rita, she doesn’t mind forgoing a few professional dreams to fulfil personal ones. “There are always tough decisions you need to make, especially when it comes to work. Sometimes, it’s painful, and sometimes, it ends up serving you more. You learn from it and you grow. But that’s an experience everyone goes through in their professional lives,” Saoirse concludes. One imagines if this even-headed Saoirse had to write her own Little Women, she’d now end that scene-stealing monologue with, “But I feel so lonely. And that’s okay.”
