Extraordinarily lovely

After her celebrated performance in Atonement, 13-year-old Saoirse Ronan returns to play a murdered teen in Peter Jackson's the lovely bones
(Fri, 19 Mar 2010)

WHEN Peter Jackson (the Academy Award-winning director and producer of The Lord of the Rings trilogy) approached Saoirse Ronan and offered her the coveted role of Susie Salmon in The Lovely Bones, the young actress admits that her first instinct was to turn it down.

It’s easy to understand why. It is, after all, a challenging part for any young performer, even one as undeniably talented as Saoirse – an Oscar nominee for her remarkable performance in Atonement and a teenager who already boasts a CV that would be the envy of actors twice her age.

Based on Alice Sebold’s highly-acclaimed, best-selling novel, The Lovely Bones is an extraordinary, moving story of a murdered girl who watches over her family – and keeps track of the man who killed her – even from “heaven”.

Now 15, Saoirse was just 13 when filming started. What made her change her mind? “Well, they sent over a few scenes for me to do and my Dad put me on tape and sent it back and then I read the script and it was just incredible.

“It’s awful what happens to Susie – absolutely terrible but the script, like the book, is beautiful and funny and actually it’s full of hope, too. At the end, you just can’t help but feel like you’ve been changed in some way.

“I spoke to Peter and then I went over to meet him and he reassured me. He said: ‘Listen, we don’t want this to be a gory movie, we don’t want to shock people, we want to tell the story in the best possible way’. And that’s what they did. And I’m so glad I did it. It was an amazing experience.”

Although the story is set in the United States, most of Saoirse’s scenes were filmed in Jackson’s studio in Wellington, New Zealand, where he created the ‘heaven’ part of the film.

The Lovely Bones was one of the most eagerly-anticipated films of 2009 and Saoirse joined a stellar cast assembled by Jackson to bring his vision of the book to the big screen.

Rachel Weisz and Mark Wahlberg play Abigail and Jack Salmon, Susie’s devastated parents; Susan Sarandon plays Grandma Lynn who tries to hold together the shattered family; while Stanley Tucci (who was nominated in the Oscars for best supporting actor) plays George Harvey, the neighbour who lures Susie into a secret hideaway and then rapes and murders her as she is on her way home.

After Susie is murdered, she watches as the tragedy sends out shockwaves that affect the lives of her family and friends.

For Jackson, bringing Sebold’s magical, poignant story to the screen represented the kind of visual challenge that he clearly relishes.

For Saoirse, it meant that most of her ‘heaven’ sequences were acted out in front of a blue screen so that Jackson, a special effects master, could add on the appropriate imagery later.

“After Susie is murdered she is kind of in this ‘in-between place’ – in between heaven and earth. I think that’s where the magic happens, where Peter really gets to work.”

Some of the scenes required Saoirse to tackle high-wire work – a process that was equal parts enjoyable and physically tough.But among the most difficult scenes were, unsurprisingly, the sequence when her killer attacks Susie.

“For the most part, I can leave things behind at the end of the day,” she says. “But because this was such a deep subject, it was a little different. I think it’s natural because sometimes you would come home and think about it because you are living it every day on the set.

“I would think about all the young girls who have suffered this tragedy and those who have been murdered. There are these monsters out there and they are getting away with it and their families are put through misery. And sometimes I would get really upset because I was so close to Susie and I had connected with her, as you would with a character that you are playing.”

At the end of each day’s filming, Tucci did his best to make sure that the youngster was reassured. “You absolutely hate his character. And I hate him. I watched the scenes and I forgot it was the lovely, kind, generous Stanley who is playing him.”

Saoirse didn’t read Sebold’s book until earlier this year after she had finished filming. “I just felt that at the time I was too young to read it,” she explains. “And it was the same with Atonement. In fact, I still haven’t read that but I will.

“I loved the book The Lovely Bones. I thought it was incredible and to tell the story through this dead girl’s eyes is so powerful.” Saoirse has not yet met author Sebold but would dearly love to.

She has now worked with some of the biggest stars in Hollywood – including Keira Knightley (Atonement), Catherine Zeta-Jones (Death Defying Acts), Bill Murray (City of Ember) and Colin Farrell on Peter Weir’s The Way Back, which is due for release this year.

“I never get star-struck. I don’t get tongue-tied or forget my name or anything. But sometimes, I’ve these lovely moments where I just know how lucky I am.”

Credit:RTE.ie