Saoirse Ronan Juggles Roles in Film and Theater
Jakarta. Irish actress Saoirse Ronan was named best actress of the year by the New York Film Critics Circle for her role as an immigrant in "Brooklyn," the Hollywood Reporter wrote on Wednesday.
The 21-year-old was in Dublin when she heard the news and said the award was the first she had received outside of Ireland.
"It means everything, especially the fact that it’s the New York critics recognizing me and the film. This is a city that means so much to me and it's a huge part of the film," she told the Hollywood Reporter.
Ronan stars in the period drama as Eilis Lacey, a young Irish immigrant who has just settled in one of New York's biggest boroughs and found a new love. The film co-stars Emory Cohen and Domhnall Gleeson as the love interests.
Ronan, born in the Bronx to Irish parents who moved to New York in the 1980s, said the similarities between her character and her real life were uncanny.
"New York is a huge, huge part of who the three of us are, really, and very much made my Mam and Dad who they are. My Dad became an actor over there; they had me over there. They got married in City Hall where my character gets married in the film," she said.
Her strong connection to the Big Apple is also why Ronan considers the recognition from the New York group of film critics important for her.
"It was so important to us that people liked it because it really felt like we were bringing it home," she said.
Ronan is currently working on her Broadway debut in a revival of Arthur Miller's "The Crucible," which opens on Feb. 29. She said both the film and the play pushed her to do things that she had no experience with, and said she enjoyed being out of her comfort zone.
"This is my first-ever play. So you're kind of throwing yourself in at the deep end by doing Arthur Miller on Broadway! But again, because I love New York so much I wouldn't have wanted to start that whole journey in theater in any other city," she said.
Actors Ben Wishaw ("Spectre," "Skyfall") and Chiaran Hinds ("Game of Thrones") will also star in "The Crucible."
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