Saoirse Ronan has revealed she is embracing playing flawed characters after her latest role as alcoholic Rona in The Outrun.
The Irish actress, 30, admitted she now gives ‘less of a f*** about things being palatable’ and is enjoying playing characters who aren’t always the most likeable and have challenging qualities.
Saoirse made headlines last month after she stunned a panel of male celebrities into silence with her comment on male violence on The Graham Norton Show.
And now the star has spoken critically about the current tendency to ‘filter our personalities’ for social media.
Starring in ELLE’s 2024 Women in Hollywood she spoke about playing a flawed character in The Outrun she explained: ‘I haven’t played anyone like that anyone like that since Briony Tallis [her character from Atonement]. And I was so ready for it.
‘I felt confident enough in my ability, but also confident enough in who I was. I didn’t feel like I was being held down by a need to only play likable people.
Saoirse Ronan has revealed she is embracing playing a flawed characters as she admitted to giving ‘less of a f***’ as she stars in ELLE’s 2024 Women in Hollywood
The Irish actress, 30, admitted she now gives ‘less of a f*** about things being palatable’ and is enjoying playing characters who aren’t always the most likeable and have challenging qualities
‘Because I got to shape it creatively, I just gave less of a f**k about things being palatable.’
Revealing how she was inspired by Lena Dunham’s characters in Girls, she continued: ‘We’ve gotten into this habit of filtering our personalities so much, reducing them to a line on Instagram or Twitter.
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Saoirse Ronan breaks her silence on her awkward exchange with Paul Mescal
‘And to be able to have the opportunity to go, “Look, this person can be fully formed and have sh**y qualities and also redeeming ones, and let’s honor all of that”—I’m at the point in my life where I’m like, “That’s what I want to see onscreen”.’
The star also opened up about being a private person and her choice not to have social media as she explained: ‘I like that people don’t know my business.
‘I just fundamentally believe that they don’t need to. I’m an actor, and the side of me that’s out there that I want people to see is in the work.’
‘I also think I was very lucky that when I was coming up, it was right before social media really took off.
‘I can see, with the slightly younger generation, how they’ve felt the pressure to have that presence. And to be honest, that is justified, because I’ve been in audition rooms where I haven’t gotten a role because I didn’t have enough Twitter followers or whatever.’
‘And in the end, I was like, “Okay, well, I don’t want to be in a movie like that, anyway.” But when you’re coming up and nobody knows who you are, and you’re trying to make a name for yourself in the world that we’re in now, I can understand how you can give that too much importance.
She continued: ‘We’ve gotten into this habit of filtering our personalities so much, reducing them to a line on Instagram or Twitter’
The star also opened up about being a private person and her choice not to have social media as she explained: ‘I like that people don’t know my business’
The star admitted she has been turned away from roles due to her lack of Twitter followers, but confessed they aren’t the kind of films she would want to star in anyway
Saoirse set social media alight last when she made a joke about self-defence while sat alongside Paul Mescal, Denzel Washington and Eddie Redmayne on Graham Norton
‘I was lucky that I just got past that. It doesn’t make sense to me why I would share my personal life with people I don’t know.’
Last month the actress set social media alight during her appearance on Graham Norton when she made a remark about gender-based violence while sat alongside an otherwise all-male panel of Paul, Denzel Washington and Eddie Redmayne.
As the men laughed about how they wouldn’t think to access their phone to retaliate in the event of an attack, Saoirse stunned the group into silence as she finally found a moment to speak amidst the hilarity and declared: ‘That’s what girls have to think about all the time.’
The brutally honest comment prompted a moment of silence from the panel before Saoirse asked the crowd: ‘Am I right, ladies?’ eliciting a huge round of applause from the studio audience.
Breaking her silence on the viral moment, Saoirse spoke to Ryan Tubridy on Virgin Radio UK, as she admitted the reaction ‘wasn’t something she expected,’ before going onto ‘urge more women to speak out’.
She said: ‘The reaction has been wild. It’s definitely not something that I had expected, and I didn’t necessarily set out to sort of make a splash.
‘But I do think there’s something really telling about the society that we’re in right now and about how open women want to be with the men in their lives.
‘So many men and women that I know from all over the world have gotten in touch with me about this one comment, which is, again, I would urge people, please, please, please to watch this in context.
Saoirse’s latest role in The Outrun sees her play alcoholic Rona
‘Please watch the whole interview or watch at least that part of the conversation, because it really wasn’t about… the boys weren’t sort of like debunking anything that I was saying.
‘But at the same time, it felt very similar to like when I am at dinner with a bunch of my friends and I will always make the point that, well, this is actually an experience that we go through every single day, 100%.
‘Paul being one of my very dear friends, I’ve had conversations like that with him before and he completely gets that and completely understands that but I think the fact that there was a moment like that that happened on a show like Graham Norton, which is something that the entire nation channels and to watch and even overseas, it’s something that people tune into, it seems to have had an accessibility which seems to have really gained traction, which I think is amazing.
‘It’s opening a conversation and again, hopefully it’s allowing more and more women to just be like, well, yeah, actually, let’s talk about our experience.’