Saoise Ronan may only be 23, but she has already built a successful and interesting career for herself.
The Irish actress has two Oscar nominations for her roles in Atonement and immigration drama Brooklyn and may get another for her latest film, Lady Bird.
Ronan stars as rebellious, free-spirited teen Christine “Lady Bird” McPherson in the Greta Gerwig-directed dramedy, which premiered at festivals in the US last month and has been generating some serious Oscar buzz over there.
Ronan’s strong-willed Lady Bird longs for a more cultured, exciting life but comes to blows with her more pessimistic but equally stubborn mother as she negotiates the challenges of school and young adulthood in this lauded coming-of-age tale.
The trailer shows Ronan figuring out what to do next as she riles any and all authority figures she crosses and even jumps out of a car to avoid a lecture from her mother at one point.
The film has received universal acclaim from movie critics, who reserved special praise for Ronan’s performance.
The New York Times’ AO Scott called Ronan ‘one of the most formidable actors in movies today’ and said she played the role with ‘daunting, dauntless precision’.
Vulture’s David Edelstein said the character could be pegged as ‘adorkable’, but that Ronan’s performance is so fierce that ‘she’d break your nose’ if you called her that.
The Hollywood Reporter called Ronan ‘marvellous’, while Deadline believes there will be a lot of awards recognition for the ‘luminous’ Ronan if there’s any justice.
The film is already one of the most acclaimed films of the year, placing only behind Dunkirk and Face Places with a score of 93 on Metacritic and boasting a 100pc ‘fresh’ rating on Rotten Tomatoes.
So expect to be seeing a lot more of Saoirse Ronan over the next few months as she walks the red carpet and does a million interviews in the hopes of securing that illusive gold statuette.
No word on an Irish release date, but we’ll sure it’ll be in cinemas over here soon after performing strongly during its limited opening in the US over the weekend.
The film opened on at four cinemas in New York and LA, taking $375,612 for an impressive $93,903 per screen average, which producers A24 said showed ‘sensational’ word-of-mouth.
Extra.ie
