Hot Scoop! Atonement Teen Is Actually 43!

By Caroline Kepnes Jan 10, 2008 8:14 PMTags
Saoirse Ronan, AtonementAlex Bailey/ Focus Features

I kid you not. Well, okay, I do kid, but hear me out. A few weeks back, Keira Knightley marveled about her Atonement costar Saoirse Ronan and wondered where her talent came from. Keira's not exaggerating—Saoirse is something. This Golden Globe-nominated 13-year-old fills the screen with so much intensity you watch her and think, here's the next Jodie Foster. It's daunting.

So, of course I headed over to the Four Seasons this week to chat with this old soul. And, my word, she really is an old soul. Seriously, right now, ch-ch-check it out.

She Digs Classic Rock:  "I like KT Tunstall, Fleetwood Mac, the Eagles, Stevie Nicks." Saoirse, I worship you for not answering "Hannah Montana." And my mom and I are so making you a mix tape!

She's Thrifty:  "I prefer to buy the single, 'cause I might not like the rest of the album." Now, there is a grandmother-approved strategy!

She Likes CBS Comedies:  "I love Everybody Loves Raymond…and The King of Queens."

She Forgets Names:  When asked whom she'd like to work with, she talks about Interview (fantastic, rent it now!): "I hadn't seen Sienna Miller in anything before, but she did an American accent and was absolutely fantastic. She was in it with…that guy…he's in all those films…" Steve Buscemi, silly!

She Can Talk Heaven:  Saoirse is currently working on Peter Jackson's The Lovely Bones. And here's what she can tell us about Jackson's interpretation of Alice Sebold's novel: "It's great the way Alice Sebold did heaven. It's all kind of in her imagination. Whenever Susie feels happy, heaven is sunny and there are flowers and birds. And when she's not feeling so great, she's in the middle of an ocean, freezing."

She Forgets What She Said Five Minutes Ago:  Early on, she tells us she hasn't yet read The Lovely Bones. "I haven't read it yet. I'm going to wait till I'm a little bit older." But at the end of the junket, she says this: "I read The Lovely Bones in two days." Oops. Well, it's possible she's referring to the script?

She Has a Crush on Johnny Depp:  Wait a minute. That makes her human, not old. But hey, I still love that she's into him instead of, you know, Zac Efron.