Over the last few years Saoirse Ronan has developed into one of the most beguiling actors in cinema thanks to her work in Atonement, The Grand Budapest Hotel, Brooklyn, Lady Bird and now On Chesil Beach.
But there’s been one project that the Irish thespian has been trying to get off the ground for 5 years, only be be met with repeated obstacles that those involved have only just been able to hurdle.
The film in question is “Mary Queen Of Scots,” in which she will play the titular character opposite Margot Robbie as Queen Elizabeth. I recently had the chance to talk to Ronan about her performance in “On Chesil Beach,” during which time she broke down her prolonged involvement with “Mary Queen Of Scots.”
“It took 5 years for loads of different reasons. It is a very difficult story to capture. So much had happened to Mary in her life. But in the 6 years that she was in Scotland and ruled in Scotland before she was put under house arrest so much happened to her.”
“She was betrayed. She was married again and again. She was manipulated, lied to, she fell in love, she became a mother. What interested me so much was her and her character. She is an interesting character to bring to the screen.”
“She is not your usual type of ruler that they bring to the screen. She’s human. She is very open and that is why people loved her, and why they were very afraid of her. Because she was like a real person.”
Ronan also teased how her scenes as Mary in Scotland will work against Robbie’s as Elizabeth, explaining, “Some of the scenes mirror each other.”
“Margot is down in the English court, and there is definitely drama that comes from there, and her feeling threatened by Mary coming back for the English throne. There’s a lot of drama there for sure.”
We’ll finally get to see what unfolds in “Mary Queen Of Scots” when it is released on December 7, which suggests that Ronan is gearing up for another Oscar hunt.
