Actress Saoirse Ronan has many talents. One of them is switching accents at a flip of a switch. The New York-born, Ireland-raised Ronan demonstrated her Hollywood talent on the set of the New York Post’s Name Check with Michael Riedel.
Ronan was nominated for an Oscar for her role in “Atonement” in 2007. “The Host” is based on “Twilight” author Stephenie Meyer’s newest book and stars Ronan, Max Irons (son of Jeremy Irons), Jake Abel, Diane Kruger and William Hurt. “The Host” opens Friday, March 29, 2013. You can next catch Ronan in Ryan Gosling’s directorial debut, “How to Catch a Monster.”
Transcript:
Michael: Welcome to Name Check. I’m Michael Riedel of the “New York Post, ” and I am delighted today to be joined by a charming, talented, and very beautiful young actress Saoirse Ronan. Now, did I pronounce that correctly, my dear?
Saoirse: That was perfect. And that was the Irish pronunciation, the way you’re talking there.
Michael: Oh fine. But I like the lilt that you have when you do it. There’s another pronunciation, Saoirse. How do you do that?
Saoirse: Well, we don’t have a little roll quite as much. We say Saoirse, which is what you said. I pronounce it Saoirse, like inertia.
Michael: Saoirse. Right. Well, it’s a lovely name, and you are a lovely actress. And you are about to open in a new movie called “The Host” opening this Friday. It’s based on Stephen Meyer’s “Twilight” series, he wrote that.
Saoirse: Stephanie Meyers.
Michael: Stephanie, sorry. There we go, keep that. Stephanie Meyer’s “Twilight” series.
Saoirse: Maybe a bloke wrote it as well, I don’t know. It would have embarrassed him.
Michael: Who knows, exactly. Can you give me a little sense of what “The Host” is about, and the role that you play in it?
Saoirse: Yeah. “The Host” is basically about our planet being taken over by a sort of alien type creature know as Souls. And they inhabit our bodies in order to achieve their goals, which is to basically perfect the world that they’ve inhabited. So, they go to different planets and try to perfect the world that they’re in.
Michael: It sounds a bit like, remember the old movie “The Body Snatchers, ” where the aliens would invade people. But they weren’t perfecting anything, they were just ruining the planet.
Saoirse: They were ruining it, yeah. Whereas with this, it’s slightly deference because really the aliens are the good guys.
Michael: Oh they are, I see. So, the humans are the bad people who are ruining things, and the aliens are coming along to make it better.
Saoirse: Yeah I mean, really nobody’s the bad guy. The humans are being taken out of the picture completely because in the Souls mind, they’re destroying the Earth. Which I guess you could to a certain extent is true.
Michael: Now, are you an alien or a human?
Saoirse: I’m both. I play two characters.
Michael: You do, really?
Saoirse: Yeah, I do.
Michael: Do, you have to switch accent, do different voices and that kind of thing? Do you have different hair, different eye color?
Saoirse: No, this is the thing that when your taken over you still look the same, so your outer shell is still your body, but the spirit and the human soul is gone.
Michael: Interesting kind of acting exercise though, right? Do you see the shift in your performance as to when you are a human, and when you are taken over, an alien?
Saoirse: Yeah, you have to. For me, it was the main draw really, to get to play two different characters. And not only that, but have them be two different species, technically. So, getting to create these two different characters and have them through their traits, and through their character, really bounce off each other. So, yeah, one of them is from Louisiana, the human, and she’s got a mild southern accent. And the other one is very soft spoken. And just through their physicality, through their clothes as well, but main through the way they speak, their gestures.
Michael: Yeah, subtly gestures are different for each one.
Saoirse: Yeah, yeah, yeah. All this kind of stuff that I wouldn’t necessarily really do with Wanda, but I may do with Melanie. So, it was a great exercise in that way, just to really add things to the character.
Michael: Now, you have an absolutely lovely Irish accent. You’re good at accents, I take it? Have you studied and trained so you can do the Louisiana accent, or lose the Irish accent?
Saoirse: I did before the film. I worked with a dialect coach a couple of weeks before we started to shoot. And then the dialect coach was around every single day whenever I was working. I’ve done a general American accent more often than any other accent. I’ve never done an Irish accent in a film before, that’s come out. I’ve actually done one since then, but it hasn’t come out yet. And I love it. I think, for me, it’s great because it really separates yourself from the character that you’re playing.
Michael: If you’re doing a southern accent, you can watch all those great old Tennessee Williams movies.
Saoirse: That’s true, that’s definitely true,
Michael “Cat on the Hot Tin Roof” Mendacity, this house reeks of mendacity. Can I hear you American accent? Can you just lose the Irish accent on cue like that?
Saoirse: What, just a general American accent? Yeah.
Michael: Oh my God, that was really good. You didn’t even shift gears at all, you just got the American accent like that.
Saoirse: Well, you know, I was born in New York.
Michael: Right, so it’s easy for you to slide back into.
Saoirse: I grew up with American television, and pop culture, and things like that. So, I was just kind of surrounded by those kinds of sounds from an early age.
Michael: I feel like I’m talking to a totally different person now that you don’t have the Irish accent.
Saoirse: Does it change things though? It does, yeah.
Michael: It’s fascinating. And your body changes in some way too.
Saoirse: Yeah, completely.
Michael: Very interesting.
Saoirse: That happens with everyone though.
Michael: Sadly, this is the only accent I have.
Saoirse: Can you try and do a different accent? Try and do an English accent. Well, an Irish accent is the toughest one to do.
Michael: Alright.
Saoirse: Are you going to do an Irish?
Michael: My English can be Irish.
Saoirse: Do you English, do your English. I’ll do English with you.
Michael: I’ll do a Phil Larkin. “They bleep you up, your mum and dad. They may not mean to, but they do. They throw in all their faults and add some extra, just for you.” How bad was that?
Saoirse: It was alright.
Michael: I’m not exactly sure what part of England I was from.
Saoirse: I like that you recited a poem as well.
Michael: “Man passes inhumanity onto man. It deepens like a coastal shelf. So get out as early and don’t have any kids yourself.”
Saoirse: You know, William Hurst was here.
Michael: It was so terrible, right?
Saoirse: You were completely changing.
Michael: Alright. The movie is “The Host, ” opening Friday. Based on a book by Stephanie Meyer. Sorry I got that wrong.
Saoirse: Not Stephen Meyer.
Michael: Sorry I got that wrong Stephanie, if you’re watching. Starring the absolutely charming Saoirse Ronan. Thank you very much for being my guest on “Name Check.”
Saoirse: Thank you Michael.