Saoirse Ronan reveals how Jack Lowden persuaded her to star in The Outrun
The four-time Oscar nominee turns in another exceptional performance in the alcoholism recovery drama.
Ever since she announced herself as one to watch with her Oscar-nominated turn in Atonement at the age of just 13, Saoirse Ronan has established herself as one of the world's finest working actors.
In subsequent years, a further three Academy Award nods have followed – for Brooklyn, Lady Bird and Little Women – and now she's being tipped to land yet another nomination for her exceptional performance in new drama The Outrun, which arrives in UK cinemas this weekend.
Adapted from Amy Liptrot's acclaimed memoir of the same name, the film sees Ronan star as Rona, a recovering alcoholic who returns to her childhood home on the Orkney Islands looking for salvation after some mightily tough years living in London.
It's an emotional journey – at times difficult and at others immensely cathartic – and speaking exclusively to RadioTimes.com, Ronan revealed that she knew this was a role for her as soon as she was persuaded to read Liptrot's book by her husband, Slow Horses star Jack Lowden.
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"The book was introduced to me by Jack Lowden, who had it on his bookshelf for years," she explained. "And when we were in lockdown, he finally read it.
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"I think it was such an appropriate time to experience it for the first time as well. And he handed it to me straight away, and he said, 'You need to read this because I think this is the next role that you should play.'
"And so, being the desperate actor that I am, I was like, 'Give it to me. I must read it.' And I just loved it."
She explained that, first and foremost, she was attracted to the idea of telling a story of a young woman recovering from alcohol addiction, something we don't get to see very often in literature or on screen – especially the latter.
"I knew that that would be quite a unique take on a very universal story," she said. "It's a topic that has affected me very closely in the way that it has many other people. It was always something that I wanted to delve into."
And the other aspect of the book that stood out to Ronan was the way Liptrot had chosen to write her story – making it "so much more than just an addiction story" by including elements of memory, history and Orcadian folklore, and exploring events in a non-linear fashion.
"I found that really interesting," she said. "And if we could find a way to take that sort of poetry and translate it onto screen, it could be something really unique and really special."
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Although the character of Rona is in many ways a version of Liptrot – and the film hews closely to her own story – Ronan pointed out that the performance is not intended to be an impression.
"I think it was really important for her in her process of handling the fact that a movie was being made about a very painful part of her life, that actually we did take some creative license," Ronan said.
"And we developed the character even more so, and it sort of transcended beyond Amy and the book and [she] became Rona, which was this sort of amalgamation of three women coming together to create something new."
Liptrot herself added that she had a few meetings with Ronan over Zoom, but she too believed that it was not an impression.
"What she's channeling more is my writing and how I am in prose, which is a sort of an elevated-hyperreal version of myself," she said. "And to have her connect with my writing is a totally amazing experience."
The Outrun is showing in cinemas from Friday 27th September 2024.
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