Budding Hollywood star, Carlow’s Saoirse Ronan, will be playing a teenage assassin in two films due to be released in the coming year.
The 16-year old actress is to appear in the upcoming film Violet & Daisy about two teenage killers, which has just begun filming in New York. The film follows two young assassins who are tasked with a supposedly routine job, but problems arise as their target James Gandolfini (of The Sopranos ) is not what they expected. Screenwriter Geoffrey Fletcher, who won an Oscar earlier this year for his work on Precious, is helming the film. Audiences can expect Fletcher’s directorial debut to be a character-driven thriller which will be a perfect vehicle for the versatile Ronan.
Ronan will also be staring in Hanna, which is currently in post-production. Ronan is the title character of this adventurer, who has been brought up to be the perfect assassin in Finland’s wilderness. Sent on a mission of vengeance by her father (Eric Bana ), Hanna travels across Europe while evading agents sent after her by a mysterious spy (Cate Blanchett ). It is directed by Joe Wright, who led Saoirse to an Oscar nomination at the age of 11 as the malicious Briony Tallis in his film Atonement.
Ronan had been exposed to performance since a young age as her father, Paul Ronan, is an experienced character actor. Saoirse received her big break with Atonement, after just two years of drama lessons, as her father sent a recording of her acting to the casting director of Atonement.
After her Oscar nomination Ronan went on to have a starring role in Peter Jackson’s The Lovely Bones at the age of 15. The film itself received mixed reviews but critics agreed that Ronan’s performance was the highlight of the film.
It seems apparent that Saoirse is not going to vanish from the limelight but will make the smooth transition from child actor to adult star that proves elusive for so many.
Saoirse Ronan is currently home-schooled and lives in her home village of Ardattin, County Carlow. Hanna and Violet & Daisy are both due for release next year.
