When I go to interview Saoirse Ronan at a central London hotel room in connection with her latest film, See How They Run – a mystery-comedy directed by This Country’s Tom George – it’s with an odd sense of familiarity. Granted, she’s a warm, familiar person – even complimenting me on my outfit (with a natural friendliness that makes it easy to see why leading filmmakers such as Greta Gerwig and Wes Anderson, respectively, have chosen to repeatedly cast her in their productions).
But equally it’s because the 28-year-old American-born Irish actress has, it seems, been everywhere in the past few years. Although she chooses not to be on social media – more on this later – in recent years she’s cropped up in an almost unfathomable number of mega-hit films, in quick succession. It began pre-pandemic. First, there was Wes Anderson’s The Grand Budapest Hotel (2014), then she played lead roles in Brooklyn (2015); Greta Gerwig’s Lady Bird (2017) and Little Women (2019); Chessil Beach, also in 2017; alongside Margot Robbie in Mary Queen of Scots (Ronan played the titular character to Robbie’s Queen Elizabeth I).
In recent years, Saoirse has somewhat slowed down – but only barely; her most recent high-profile role was playing a Showgirl in The French Dispatch (another Anderson film) as part of an ensemble cast. Now, she joins yet another ensemble cast as part of murder-comedy film See How They Run, firmly established among the league of “big name” stars like Adrien Brody, Ruth Wilson, Sam Rockwell, together with Spooks star David Oyelowo and This Country’s Charlie Cooper. She plays the role of Constable Stalker, an endearingly keen female police officer hired to shadow troubled anti-hero Inspector Stoppard played by Sam Rockwell (to her delight and his dismay, respectively).
Here, in the latest episode of GLAMOUR Unfiltered, Saoirse shares her experience of filming See How They Run; who her favourite person was to work with out of the star-studded cast; plus, a little more about her career to date, why she feels empowered when she’s performing (or cold water swimming!) and how she stays grounded while protecting her boundaries.
I loved you in See How They Run, a mystery-comedy film which plays on the age-old “murder mystery” narrative. If you were in a real life murder mystery, who do you reckon you'd be: one of the victims; the person solving the mystery; or would you be the one getting away with the crime?
I don't think I'd be the one solving it. I’ve done a few escape rooms and I've gotten better, but I panic and organise things because I don't know what else to do. So I definitely don't think I'd be the one who finds “whodunnit”. I could be like a bystander? I could do the whole “I think he went that way”. I'd probably be someone like that. I don't think I'd be the victim because I'm very suspicious, naturally; always on guard. So I'd get away from the murder.
The film has an incredible cast. Which co-star did you have the best rapport with on set?
Sam Rockwell, whom I share every single second on screen with. We did everything together. We had scenes where we would have to finish each other's sentences. We became almost like a weird set of twins, I love him. I've worked with Adrian [Brody] before, I've met Ruth [Wilson] before, there were a few people I vaguely knew, but Sam and I were together all the time. So we became very close.
You've played a lot of strong female characters in the past. Mary Queen of Scots, Ladybird [in Ladybird], and playing a female police officer Constable Stalker in a mostly male police force in this role. When do you personally feel most empowered as a woman?
It depends on the situation, your mood. As a person, I feel most empowered when I'm working – when I'm not completely messing something up – it's a wonderful feeling to be on stage and feel like you've got some control over what you're doing. When I feel confident in that environment, I definitely feel like I'm flying. This is completely different, but I love being outside and hiking. I love cold water swimming. That's probably the most empowered I feel: when I get into cold water. It's the best natural high ever.
You've had such an incredible career to date. I’m curious to know what challenges you've faced along the way, and how you've dealt with them – particularly, any setbacks specific to being a female in the acting industry.
I've been relatively fortunate in my experiences as an actor. Yes, I've worked with people who are a bit more difficult, as we all have as people do in every industry. I felt like that because of the way I was brought up: because I had my mother with me until I was about 18, I had a good strong foundation to deal with [difficult behaviour] whenever it came my way. I knew what was right and what was OK in terms of etiquette and behaviour on sets, whether it was by someone else or by me. I've always felt like for the most part I've been in a safe environment.
When do you feel most like yourself?
When I'm with the people that I'm closest to. When I'm with my dog, because – well, I was going to say she doesn't judge me, but actually she probably does judge me a bit. She does a lot of side eye, a lot of the time when we're together, but I still love her anyway. I feel most myself when I'm doing stuff like cold water swimming. Being in the elements, you're forced to completely adapt, survive it and embrace it. The real you comes out in those kinds of situations.
Would you rather be liked or respected?
Respected. If your only goal is to be liked, then you can compromise yourself, your morals, your work, your relationships. Ultimately it's more important to be respected, but also to be nice to people.
You're famously not on social media. Why did you make the decision to delete those accounts to begin with and what are your feelings about social media in general?
Social media can be a terrific tool for other people who use it in a moderate and healthy way. I mean, I've been to my best friend's wedding and it was an excellent source for planning wedding dress styles, things like that. It can be a great source of all of those things. But for me, to be honest, I wasn't really getting anything out of it. The kind of interaction that means more to me is interacting with my close friends. We still have group chats where we send photos and videos and memes voice memos to each other. I feel like I'm getting the same buzz from that that I would from a social network, but without a bunch of strangers knowing too much about you. I don't want people I don't know to have access to my life.
You've been acting since you were nine years old. How have you coped with the pressures of being in the public eye from so young?
I wasn't really in the public eye from nine. I was doing little RTE [Raidió Teilifís Éireann] dramas, which is the Irish BBC essentially). People didn’t know who I was for a very, very long time and I was always very lucky that I consistently worked, but the kind of projects that I was involved in were more mature. I wasn't doing projects that focused on children or the younger demographic, and I think that's when you really get serious instant fame… so that's something that I sidestepped, because of the work that I was doing. That came later. It's a weird thing, to be recognised by people. But honestly, the majority of the time – pretty much all the time – it's positive and supportive. I think when I started to get a little bit of that – and I still don't have anything compared to some people – I had a strong enough foundation to handle it, to separate it from my actual life and perception of myself.
If you weren't an actor, what would you be?
It's depressing, but this is all I've ever done. So I don't know what I would do, although I've always loved the radio, and certainly through promoting movies, , I've spent a lot of time at different radio stations and with different presenters and things like that. And I've always really loved that. I love the buzz of it, going to see Zoe Ball and stuff. She's like running around her studio, flicking buttons and bringing people in and doing great interviews and playing great music, and nobody sees her. That seems ideal to me. So I'd quite like to do something like that. Or something that involved eating, maybe that would be fun.
How do you look after your mental health?
I've got wonderful people very close to me who I can talk to. Again, cold water is great for your mental health. Cold showers in the morning are great. Jumping into the sea is great. Music really helps me honestly…I'll go in and out of doing meditation and things like that, but I'm very lucky. I've got wonderful people that I can speak to. I also like being on my own and I think that can be really helpful too, to have some time to yourself. And actually, having an animal around is a wonderful addition to your life. It gives you something else to focus on that isn’t you.
Final question. What's the best advice you've ever been given and by whom?
One of the best pieces of advice I was ever given was by a brilliant director, John Crowley, whom I made Brooklyn with. I was trying to figure out whether I should do this job that had been offered to me. On paper, it was something that I absolutely should do, and I'd be an idiot to turn it down. But for a number of reasons, the idea of doing it stressed me out. He said to me, you have to protect your bond with your work. It’s its own little separate thing. It's separate from you. And it's separate from the final project. In any industry, it's the relationship that you have with your work, and you have to look after that, take care of it and respect it. He said, only ever do the things that you want or need to do. Don't do the things that you should do. I've always kept that in my head, ever since he said it.
See How They Run starring Saoirse Ronan is out in UK cinemas now.
