57 Facts About Saoirse Ronan

1.

Saoirse Una Ronan is an American-born Irish actress.

2.

Saoirse Ronan had her breakthrough role as a precocious teenager in Joe Wright's Atonement, which earned her a nomination for the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress.

3.

Saoirse Ronan's career progressed with starring roles as a murdered girl seeking closure in The Lovely Bones and a teenage assassin in Hanna, and the supporting role of a baker in The Grand Budapest Hotel.

4.

Saoirse Ronan received critical acclaim and nominations for the Academy Award for Best Actress for playing a homesick Irish immigrant in 1950s New York in Brooklyn, the eponymous high school senior in Greta Gerwig's Lady Bird, and Jo March in Gerwig's Little Women.

5.

Saoirse Ronan won a Golden Globe Award for Lady Bird.

6.

On stage, Saoirse Ronan portrayed Abigail Williams in the 2016 Broadway revival of The Crucible and Lady Macbeth in the 2021 West End revival of The Tragedy of Macbeth.

7.

Saoirse Una Ronan was born on 12 April 1994 in the Bronx, a borough of New York City, the only child of Irish parents Monica and Paul Ronan, both from Dublin.

8.

Saoirse Ronan's father worked in construction and in bars before training as an actor in New York, and her mother worked as a nanny and had acted as a child.

9.

Saoirse Ronan's parents were initially undocumented immigrants who had left Ireland due to the recession of the 1980s, and struggled economically during their time in New York.

10.

The family moved back to Dublin when Saoirse Ronan was three years old.

11.

Saoirse Ronan was raised in Ardattin, County Carlow, where she attended Ardattin National School.

12.

Saoirse Ronan was raised Catholic but has stated that she questioned her faith as a child.

13.

Saoirse Ronan made her screen debut on Irish national broadcaster RTE, in the 2003 prime time medical drama The Clinic and appeared in the mini-serial Proof.

14.

At the age of 12, Saoirse Ronan attended a casting call for Joe Wright's 2007 film adaptation of Ian McEwan's novel Atonement.

15.

Saoirse Ronan auditioned for and won the part of Briony Tallis, a 13-year-old aspiring novelist, who affects several lives by accusing her sister's lover of a crime he did not commit.

16.

Saoirse Ronan was nominated for a BAFTA Award, a Golden Globe Award and an Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress, becoming the seventh youngest nominee in that category.

17.

In 2009, Saoirse Ronan starred alongside Rachel Weisz, Mark Wahlberg, Susan Sarandon and Stanley Tucci in Peter Jackson's supernatural drama The Lovely Bones, an adaptation of the book of the same name by Alice Sebold.

18.

Several sequences in the film relied on extensive special effects and much of Saoirse Ronan's scenes were filmed in front of a blue screen.

19.

Reviewers were critical of the film's story and message, but Richard Corliss of Time believed that Saoirse Ronan had successfully invested the gruesome tale with "immense gravity and grace".

20.

Saoirse Ronan later considered it to be the third best performance of the year.

21.

Sukhdev Sandhu of The Daily Telegraph considered Saoirse Ronan to be the sole positive aspect of the production, writing that she "is simultaneously playful and solemn, youthful yet old beyond her years".

22.

In Peter Weir's war drama The Way Back, Saoirse Ronan played the supporting part of Irena, a Polish orphan during World War II, who joins escaped Siberian convicts in a 4,000-mile trek to India.

23.

Saoirse Ronan performed her own stunts and in preparation, she spent several months training in martial arts, stick fighting and knife fighting.

24.

Saoirse Ronan voiced the lead role in the dubbed English version of Studio Ghibli's anime film Arrietty.

25.

At the age of 16, Saoirse Ronan was invited to join the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences.

26.

In 2011, Saoirse Ronan took part in a promotion for the Irish Film Institute's Archive Preservation Fund, in which she was digitally edited into popular Irish films of the past, as well as documentary footage.

27.

Eric Goldman of IGN compared the film unfavourably to the work of Quentin Tarantino and commented that Saoirse Ronan's abilities had surpassed the material.

28.

Saoirse Ronan was instead drawn to Neil Jordan's horror film Byzantium, as the "dark, gothic and twisted" project provided her an opportunity to play a more complex and mature character.

29.

In Kevin Macdonald's drama How I Live Now, an adaptation of the novel of the same name by Meg Rosoff, Saoirse Ronan played an American teenager sent to a remote farm in the United Kingdom during the outbreak of a fictional World War III.

30.

Olly Richards of Empire found Saoirse Ronan to be in "typically watchable form" in it, but the film earned little at the box office.

31.

Saoirse Ronan believed that several aspects of her character's development and journey mirrored her own.

32.

The film and Saoirse Ronan's performance were acclaimed; Peter Bradshaw of The Guardian considered it to be a "heartfelt and absorbing film" and wrote that Saoirse Ronan's "calm poise anchors almost every scene and every shot".

33.

In 2016, Saoirse Ronan moved to New York City to begin rehearsals for her debut appearance on Broadway, in a revival of Arthur Miller's play The Crucible.

34.

Saoirse Ronan took the role of Abigail Williams, a manipulative maid responsible for the death of 150 people accused of witchcraft.

35.

Saoirse Ronan next voiced Marguerite Gachet in the biographical animated drama Loving Vincent, and starred alongside Billy Howle as troubled newlyweds on their honeymoon in a film adaptation of Ian McEwan's novel On Chesil Beach.

36.

Saoirse Ronan starred in Greta Gerwig's coming-of-age film Lady Bird, in which she played the titular role of Christine "Lady Bird" McPherson, a high school senior who shares a tumultuous relationship with her mother.

37.

Saoirse Ronan is as spontaneous and unpredictable as an actual 17-year-old.

38.

In 2017, Saoirse Ronan hosted an episode of the NBC sketch comedy Saturday Night Live, in which one of her sketches was criticised for its stereotypical portrayal of Irish people, and featured in the music video for Ed Sheeran's song "Galway Girl".

39.

Saoirse Ronan starred as Mary Stuart in the period drama Mary Queen of Scots, co-starring Margot Robbie as Elizabeth I of England.

40.

Critic Todd McCarthy praised both actresses' performances and credited Saoirse Ronan for "carr[ying] the film with fiercely individualistic spirit".

41.

In 2020, Saoirse Ronan portrayed the geologist Charlotte Murchison opposite Kate Winslet's Mary Anning in Francis Lee's Ammonite, a drama about a romantic relationship between the two women in the 1840s.

42.

In 2021, Saoirse Ronan had a small part in Wes Anderson's ensemble film The French Dispatch, about American journalists in France.

43.

Saoirse Ronan was intimidated by the experience of performing Shakespeare for the first time in her career, and drew inspiration from Kanye West and Kim Kardashian's marriage for portraying the relationship between Macbeth and Lady Macbeth.

44.

Saoirse Ronan starred alongside Sam Rockwell as cops solving a murder in 1950s London in the comedy mystery film See How They Run.

45.

Saoirse Ronan is close with her parents, and lived with them until age 19.

46.

Saoirse Ronan has credited her mother, who accompanied her on film sets as a teenager, for protecting her from uncomfortable situations.

47.

In 2018 Saoirse Ronan purchased a home in Greystones, County Wicklow; she sold the home in late 2019.

48.

Saoirse Ronan had previously joined Twitter in late 2009 due to being a fan of English comedian Stephen Fry, whose heavy usage of the site has been well documented, but soon deleted her account.

49.

Saoirse Ronan is an ambassador for the Irish Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Children.

50.

Saoirse Ronan is associated with Home Sweet Home, an anti-homelessness campaign, and supported the organisation's action to illegally take over an office building in Dublin to house 31 homeless families in 2016.

51.

Saoirse Ronan has supported LGBT rights in Ireland by voting in favour of gay marriage on the 2015 Irish constitutional referendums.

52.

In 2016, Saoirse Ronan was featured by Forbes in two of their 30 Under 30 lists and in Times Next Generation Leaders list.

53.

Saoirse Ronan was ranked one of the best-dressed women in 2018 by the fashion website Net-a-Porter.

54.

Saoirse Ronan has been recognised by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences for the following performances:.

55.

At 25 years and six months of age, Saoirse Ronan is the second youngest person to accrue four Academy Award nominations, behind only American actress Jennifer Lawrence.

56.

Saoirse Ronan has received five British Academy Film Award nominations, and four Screen Actors Guild Award nominations.

57.

Saoirse Ronan has received four Golden Globe Award nominations, winning Best Actress in a Motion Picture Musical or Comedy for Lady Bird.