This impressive Saoirse Ronan performance in Steve McQueen’s “Blitz” wasn’t supposed to happen. Her role as Rita, a young mother protecting her son George (newcomer Elliott Hefferman) during the Nazi bombing of London in World War II could have gone to someone else. Because, in theory, Ronan was looking for a long, extended break.
READ MORE: ‘Blitz’ Review: Steven McQueen’s WWII London Bombing Drama Is Dazzling [NYFF]
“I had been gone from the 5th of January in Australia for about four months [filming ‘Foe‘], and then I went straight into ‘The Outrun’ and essentially prepping that and shooting that over about six months,” Ronan explains. “And I said to [my agent] before we even kicked off on ‘The Outrun,’ I’d love a break. So I was like, ‘I’m going into semi-retirement at the end of ‘The Outrun,’ and the only way you’ll get me out of it is if someone like Steve McQueen was to come along and wanted to speak to me about a project or for me to audition.’ And that’s exactly what happened.”
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Despite four Oscar nominations to date, the Irish actress still had to convince McQueen to cast her in the part. Rita had to sing, which meant Ronan had to work with a vocal coach to prove she could knock the original song out of the park. And now? Well, she’s hoping Greta Gerwig casts her in a movie musical. Of course, Gerwig doesn’t know this yet. But after this interview, it might inspire her to try.
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The Playlist: Hey Saoirse, how you doing?
Saoirse Ronan: Gregory! How you doing?
Pretty good! Congratulations on the movie.
Thanks.
Do you have the most amazing agent? Because Steve told me that they hadn’t even gone out for casting and he approached Steve saying that you might be interested in it. How did that even happen?
I don’t know. You’ll have to ask Chris Andrews, but yes, I do have the most amazing agent. I mean, I have a good working relationship with [producer] Tim Bevin as well. I’ve been working with him and Working Title on and off for years. But yeah, I don’t know what Chris did, but it worked.
The script came your way though. What about it made you want to be involved?
Steve McQueen. I’m a huge fan of his, and I had said to my agent that year, in particular, was very busy, and I had been gone from the 5th of January in Australia for about four months, and then I went straight into “The Outrun” and essentially prepping that and shooting that over about six months. And I said to Chris before we even kicked off on “The Outrun,” I’d love a break. So I was like, “I’m going into semi-retirement at the end of ‘The Outrun,’ and the only way you’ll get me out of it is if someone like Steve McQueen was to come along and wanted to speak to me about a project or for me to audition.” And that’s exactly what happened. So yeah, we met when I was still in Australia, I think, over Zoom, and we had a brief sort of 20, 30-minute phone conversation about what his plans were for the film that it was sort of essential that I was able to hold a tune. So, I said I could do that. I said, “I can do accents.” I said, “Yes, I can play a mother, I can do all those things.” I really wanted to get the role. So, then when I got back to the U.K., I did vocal lessons with a singing coach. I did one session with her, and then she called Steve afterward, and she said, “Yes, she can sing.” So, he offered me the role then.
But you’d sung before in films. You’d had moments like in “The French Dispatch.” It’s not like the first time, right?
I’ve done it a few times. Like “French Dispatch,” the very first movie I did, “I Could Never Be Your Woman,” which was an Amy Heckerling movie. I sang throughout that Her funny little quip was that she’d write these satirical versions of songs that we knew. So, a very satirical version of “Ironic” by Alanis Morissette and a Coldplay song or whatever. So I did that, and then in a Ryan Gosling movie, [“Lost River”] I sang. And so I’ve done little bits here and there. And listen, I’m not a professional singer, but I love to sing, and I get very nervous doing it in front of anyone. So it was a big thing to have to perform in front of people.
I was going to ask, there must’ve been at least a hundred people there, maybe more in that scene. And you’re singing live, right? It’s not to pre-recorded a track.
We recorded everything in Abbey Road Studios, and then we would decide on the day what we were going to do and when we were going to do it live or not. So yeah, I was singing, but we would mix it with stuff that we had done in the studio, which was raw. They hadn’t done anything to it or anything. But yeah, apparently, that’s just what you have to do. You have to record it ahead of time for safety’s sake.
So what about Rita? What appealed to you about her character?
I think what I was really interested in was that we were going to follow a mother-child relationship, and the backdrop of that would be the Second World War. I found that very interesting. I found it incredibly relatable and universal. And I think one thing that anyone with a heart right now speaks about when we talk about the wars that are going on throughout the world is parents being separated from their children. The effect that it has on kids and women being used in the way that they are. There’s something I think about women and children, in particular that really humanizes people and breaks those barriers down. And so, it seemed like a very effective way to retell the story of the Blitz in a more kind of honest way. So, I was very excited to be involved in it. For that reason, my own relationship with my mother is so important to me and has been incredibly formative, as it is for everyone. Whether you’re close to your mother or not, it shapes you. And I luckily have a very special positive experience with my own mother. And to be able to bring that to life and to honor that dynamic was so special to me. And then on top of that as well, I think when he said to me that music was going to be such a central role in the film and that music, in particular in their home would kind of be the beating heart of the house, that really intrigued me as well because that’s sort of how I grew up. I grew up with music just being played all of the time, and that’s sort of the art form that I am drawn to the most, more so even than film and TV is music. I’ve always loved it more than anything. So yeah, to get to bring to life was just very exciting.
I know this is a little tangential, but have you thought about doing your own music and recording at all?
No, I’m not good enough to do anything like that. I’m not a singer, but I would love to be in a musical. I’d love to be in a film musical. I think that would be really fun. And I’ve decided that Greta is going to write it.
Does she know this yet?
She will in time. That’s good. I’ll tell her when I’m ready.
When you’re ready. [Laughs]. You’re working with a first-time actor in Elliot who’s playing your son, and you also started acting very young. I think you’ve worked with kids before, but how do you approach working with a young actor, especially for a role this big?
It’s important that they have the most fun possible and that they feel as safe, and confident, and comfortable as they can be. And even now, especially while we’re promoting this movie, there’s a lot that’s being asked of this kid a lot more than when I was his age. I didn’t have to do any of this stuff. The landscape has changed so drastically, even just in the last few years. So, the expectation for young people is something that I can appreciate absolutely on a film set, but in this world, I’m very conscious of him having never done this before. And kids don’t want to say no, they don’t ever want to upset anyone. They want people to be pleased with what they’re doing. So that can be taken for granted in the wrong environment. And if my mom hadn’t been around, it would’ve been with me. And there were times when it absolutely was, but I was so lucky that I had someone who always valued my feeling of safety over everything else, and I wanted him to have that. And I also think that it’s finding that balance between being protective over a young person and making sure that someone is there to represent them who’s been in that position themselves, but also still recognizing that he is a young actor and he is doing exactly the same job that I’m doing and we’re coworkers and we’re both here to do the same job. And that’s the thing that I love about making films is that when I was 10, 11, 12, and 13 years old, I was working with people like Stanley Tucci, and we both had to learn our lines in the same way. We both had to show up to set at the same time. We both had to do the same job. And he obviously had all of this experience that I didn’t have, but that does something. It bonds people together, and age kind of goes out the window. And I think a lot of the time that’s incredibly helpful and a wonderful environment to be in, but I think in the wrong hands, that can be taken advantage of. So yeah, I guess I’m just aware of all that, and I genuinely just wanted him to have the nicest time he could have while still being able to do the work.
Do you remember any scene in particular where you were shooting you were like, “Oh, Steve cast the right kid, he can do this. He’s good.”?
All the time. I mean, every day, I thought that about Elliot. I thought he was more right for his part than any of us were. I think Steve was just waiting for someone like him to come along. I think I knew from the first day, I knew when I saw him on set, and he just wasn’t phased by any of the chaos. He wasn’t afraid of cameras, which a lot of young people are actually, he was very centered as a performer. I don’t want to say that he was just chill because I think sometimes that can sound like you’re lifeless almost. But he had this sort of groundedness to him and confidence in what he was doing, and he was incredibly diligent from that first day. So, yeah, I knew he could absolutely carry it, but it was also important that we didn’t take that for granted. It was still a massive job. I think for anyone to be a lead in a Steve McQueen film is such a huge feat. I remember someone had said to us at the beginning, “Don’t make too big a deal out of the fact that he has a lot of responsibility on his shoulders, and this is a big job.” And I thought that that was a really helpful thing to think about, that you always wanted there to be levity for Elliot so that it never felt like it was weighed down too much by anything too serious.
You two don’t have that many scenes together, but you and Harris Dickinson have such great chemistry when you’re together on screen. Have you ever done scenes with someone you’re supposed to have chemistry with and you don’t believe it? I guess as an actor, is it either natural, or can actors actually fake it?
I think there are three things. I think that sometimes you’re really, really lucky, and you just have that natural chemistry straight away, which is the best. Sometimes, it’s just not there, and you have to fake it, and you can because that’s your job. Other times, you don’t necessarily have chemistry as people, but something happens when you come together in a scene that’s just kind of electric. And I think sometimes that’s born out of being so different from someone else and not working in the same way as them or just having a different energy that, for whatever reason, when those two forces come together, it really, really works. But obviously, the best situation is when you just really get on. And Harris and I, this is the second film we’ve done together. We did another movie together called “See How They Run” a few years ago, and we only had a couple of scenes together. Harris and I shot a lot in this. A lot of it hasn’t ended up in the movie, but we got to shoot together quite a bit. And we just had so much fun together. And it was really nice actually to work with someone my age as well. So, that was great. But yeah, I think you look out when you find someone that you just like working with, and the work seems to be great as well.
Did you feel like you had to do a lot of research into what women were doing at the time during the war for your role?
Yeah, it was pretty integral. I think it was important that we exposed ourselves to as many firsthand accountants as we could. And there was a lot of footage of people 20 years after the war sort of recounting their experience, which was helpful as well. But really, so much of it is just about that day-to-day, keeping your head down, going to work, your friendship dynamics, going through this sort of emotional turmoil of giving your child up. I think you can read about that stuff for sure, but you just need to try and tap into what that level of loss must feel like or what that level of comradery feels like. And I think that’s something that is sort of timeless and exists at different points in anyone’s life. So I could relate to that myself anyway. And really that was the sort of stuff that was most important to me. Of course, I wanted to know what people were experiencing and what they had been through. But to be honest, it’s still happening now. It’s still so a part of our psyche and our day-to-day, you turn on the news and it’s there. So, it feels like these types of stories are still very much a part of our lives. But it was certainly very poignant, I think, because this particular war was a cultural shift for women, and society sort of changed forever because of this war because women had to step into these roles that had been left by men, and the ripple effects of that afterward were so great. That meant that we were able to have the roles in society that we have nowadays. So, in that sense, it was wonderful to be like, “Oh, O.K., there’s something really real that we’re bringing to life here and something that really has shaped all of our lives since then.”
“Blitz” opens in limited release on Friday
