Alex BaileySaoirse Ronan has no big dreams of moving to Hollywood. But you’d think she would. At just 13, she’s a Golden Globe nominee for her performance as the young Briony opposite Keira Knightley and James McAvoy in director Joe Wright’s movie adaptation of the novel Atonement. She lives in her native Ireland with her parents and has no immediate plans to hightail to the West Coast.
Although, she’ll be jetting off to New Zealand any day now to complete filming on The Lovely Bones, in which she stars as a murdered young girl who watches from heaven as her family deals with death. Peter Jackson directs, and Mark Wahlberg and Rachel Weisz costar.
I sat down with the rising star the other day at the Four Seasons in Beverly Hills for some chitchat. On Wednesday, I gave you part one of my interview, in which Ronan talked about what she’ll be doing on Sunday night, why she hasn’t read the book Atonement and the dirty word she learned when she first read the script.
Today, I give you Ronan on Wahlberg as a dad, looking like Vanessa Redgrave and what happened to her beloved dog Sassy.
You’re working with Mark Wahlberg in The Lovely Bones. What’s he like?
He’s great. He’s a lovely guy. He’s got kids. I think they came for Thanksgiving or he went to them, but he really missed his family because he was just off another film, The Happening. So, I think from a parent’s point of view you can just imagine how awful it must be.
As with Atonement, you haven’t read The Lovely Bones either. Same reason?
It’s heavy stuff. But I am going to read the book. I think I’d just get upset though. I mean, sometimes I go through some scenes in the script and I cry.
In Atonement, Vanessa Redgrave plays an older Briony. You really do look so much alike.
Yeah, it’s weird, but it’s kind of cool to look like Vanessa Redgrave.
Your mom just told me you’re actually looking forward to going back to school!
Isn’t that weird? Am I weird? I really just want to get back into a routine, because I got home for two weeks for Christmas and one of my friends said to me the other day, “God, I wish you weren’t gone, because whenever you come back, you have to leave when I’m just getting used to you being back.” It really broke my heart.
I read that you really miss your border collie, Sassy, when you’re working.
Something not quite right happened to Sassy. We were in Pennsylvania [filming The Lovely Bones], and it was actually the day we were going back to Ireland, and we found out she ran away in Dublin. She’s been gone for a couple of weeks now. I reckon Sassy’s history.
Oh, no! Will you get another dog?
No, not for a while. I wish we could, but I’m working—and even when we had Sassy, it wasn’t fair, you know?
Do you think you’ll ever move to Hollywood?
I don’t think so. I mean, I’d definitely like to have a place here. I’d buy a house or an apartment or something but—this is no offense to anyone who lives here—it’s just not really for me. You know, I love where I live. I love the country.
Now, of course, there’s Oscar buzz for you. What has this all been like?
It’s been mad. [Laughs.] That’s the only word I can use to describe it. It’s mad!
For more with Ronan, click over to Reel Girl.