During her freshman year at Syracuse University, Alice Sebold was raped in Thornden Park. In 2002, the SU alumna published the novel ‘The Lovely Bones,’ a story that follows a teenage girl who, after being raped and murdered, watches her family and friends from heaven as they continue on with their lives. A movie adaptation of the novel opened last weekend in theaters nationally. Saoirse Ronan, the actress who plays the victim in the movie, talks about her experiences working on the film.

On what it’s like to play a character in a book adaptation and whether conflicts with the director arise when it comes to interpreting a role

Well, I would focus more on the character and the screenplay instead of the book because it’s a different version of telling the story. It’s the film version, so yeah, I’m going to focus on that a little bit more. But still it’s (handy) to be, you know, making movies that were based on books as well. No, I haven’t had any conflicts really with the directors that I’ve worked with, so I’ve been very lucky. We’ve been on the same page. We’ve gotten on really well, so no, we’ve understood each other. I’m good.

On the similarities she has with Susie Salmon

Yeah, there’s a few. I mean, Susie’s a typical teenage girl, so I think that hopefully when girls go and see this movie, they’re going to connect with her in some way. But, yeah, I mean, you know, she’s interested in photography and fashion and things like that, and boys of course, so I’m interested in all those things.

On how her roles in ‘Atonement’ and ‘The Lovely Bones’ influenced her outlook on life

With ‘Atonement’ it wasn’t that influential because it, you know, it was a bitter girl who’s very in on herself. And I mean, I suppose that it would make you think more before you speak if anything, but ‘The Lovely Bones’ in particular just made me appreciate what I have. You know, that I’m lucky to be here, I’m lucky to have the amazing family that I have. It’s also made me more aware of things that go on in the world, these awful crimes that are committed every day. So, yeah, so it’s boosted my awareness.

On whether playing Susie Salmon was challenging and how she prepared for the role

Yeah, it was challenging, it – as you said – it’s a very serious subject matter and it was always going to be a challenge for me because I hadn’t done anything quite that deep before. But it’s also very light and, you know, it’s full of hope, and so in that way, it was easy. But when we dealt with very, you know, emotional scenes, intense scenes, there would be a lot of discussion between me and Pete (Jackson) and Fran (Walsh) and Philippa (Boyens) who are the writers as well. So, yeah, we just talked a lot about it and just made sure that we were going in the same direction and we were on the same page.

On starring in films with dark themes

You know, I find sometimes it’s quite easy to be the opposite to how you are in real life for me. I don’t know what it is. Maybe it’s just because it’s not somewhere that I go very often. The door is always open for me to go there. So, yeah, I mean, it’s just – it just take a lot of thinking and, you know, I really understood Susie and Peter, who’s obviously involved. We were on the same page and we have the same outlook on what she was going to be like and everything. So, yeah, it just took a lot of thinking.

On being nominated for an Academy Award at a young age

It was – oh, it was crazy. I was working. I was actually on ‘Lovely Bones’ at the time, so I was very busy with that. And then, suddenly this thing happened and it was exciting, and it was kind of nerve-wrecking and, but you know, it was great and it was a great honor for me to be nominated so young and it was a film that I really enjoyed doing. So, yeah, I was really, really happy.

On awards season buzz for ‘The Lovely Bones’

To be honest, I try not to think about award season at all, especially when it concerns a movie that I’ve made. I think, you know, nobody, none of the press, have actually seen the movie yet, so it’s not fair to say, but it’s great that they’re putting it at such a high level already. Hopefully it does well. I just really hope that everyone enjoys it – that they connect to it as much as they did with the book. So if awards come as well, then that’s brilliant.

On whether any characters or performances influenced her preparation for the role of Susie Salmon

No, not really. I mean, she’s a typical teenage girl, so she’s very similar to myself and my friends, and you know, girls I’ve seen on the TV, so yeah, it was very easy to – in a way – become a sort of friend of hers, you know? She’s a very happy person, so it was easy to go there.

On filming the heaven scenes

It was kind of a little bit surreal at first because it was all blue screen and I hadn’t worked with that much blue screen before, only a little bit. And most of heaven was going to be put in afterward. So, it was sometimes difficult to try and imagine what it was going to be like, what it was going to look like. We obviously had an idea in our head of what the basic picture of it was going to be. But it, you know, it was great and I saw the movie a few days ago and it was a lovely surprise to finally see heaven.

On whether she suggested any of her own beliefs about the afterlife to the directors during filming

No, not really. I think that their plans for heaven seemed to work really well and I didn’t really want to play around with that at all, you know, its elements. It’s Susie’s life on Earth that have created her in between things that she was connected to in some way, and I think it was a very logical thing to do. It made sense. So yeah, so I think they knew what they were doing, so I just left them to it.

On what viewers should take away from the film

Well, I think that the message of this movie, although it may not seem like it to people who haven’t seen it yet, is ultimately hope and how you get there. You know, when Susie arrives in the in-between, she doesn’t want to go forward, which would mean accepting her death. She wants to be back on Earth with her family, and she knows she can’t do that. And to get there, you know, it’s about her love for her family and not the hate and vengeance that she has for her murder. So yeah, so it’s hope.

On working with Fran Walsh and Peter Jackson

I absolutely loved working with them. They’re brilliant. They’re partners, so they’re together all the time pretty much. And Fran is one of the kindest, sweetest women I have ever met. I love her. She’s funny. She’s creative. She’s just wonderful. And Pete and her are like a rock. They’re just great together, and of course I love working with Pete as well, as director and as a friend.

On how Peter Jackson works with actors

He’s pretty involved. I mean, he’ll let you be free to – if you want to try something out he’s, you know, he’s very welcoming toward that kind of approach. But he likes to be very involved with his actors and he’s always there. He’s always up and ready to go, and he was great because he would kind of act through what we were going to do, which made me and the girl who played Holly, it made us laugh sometimes. He was just great. But, yeah, he was very hands on.

On why she always plays serious roles instead of lighter ones

Well, I don’t think I’m really that kind of actor anyway. I’ll leave Miley Cyrus to that. But I think you’re right. I think it’s important that I do something a little bit more lighthearted. I mean, you know, the first movie that I made was a romcom and it was funny and lighthearted, so yeah, it’s important for me to do something like that and, you know, there’s a few scripts that aren’t quite as serious as what I’ve done so far. So hopefully they’ll work out and you’ll see me on a lighter note.

On what she’s learned while working with more experienced actors

I think it’s just the way they are on set. I mean, I’ve worked with a lot of actors that just have a really good approach to working with other people, to being with other people every day, and you need that when you’re working on a movie. You become a family unit, so it’s very important to get on with everyone. And it’s not as much with acting itself because everyone kind of has their own thing that they do. So, the people that I’ve worked with have been very respectful towards me and they know that I have my own thing going on. So, it’s more just the attitude that they have on set and the etiquette and that’s, you know, I’ve taken that away.

On reading the book

Well, I actually waited to read it after I had made the movie. I just really wanted to focus on the screenplay version, and also I felt like I was a little bit too young to read it at the time. I was 13. So, as you know, the book is little bit more visual and a bit more violent than the film, so it just made sense. But I read the book this year for the first time and I absolutely loved it. I felt every emotion possible. And I think because I had been through the whole experience of making the movie and living through the story, I think that helps me to really connect with the book and to understand the book fully.

On not being star struck

I’ve never really been star struck. Like, I’ve never been speechless or anything like that. I don’t think I could do that anyway, you know, I’m Irish, but I was pretty excited. I usually get very excited when I meet people around my own age, whether they’re well known or not. But no, I’ve never really been star struck.

On preparing to play a character who faces serious situations

It’s really about putting yourself in the position. I suppose I was able to understand her pretty well and I think what I thought about was something I loved so dearly being taken away from me. And although luckily that hasn’t happened to me yet, I was able to put myself there. But I haven’t really taken anything from anywhere else. It’s just been that one thing. And plus, the story itself kind of makes you go there as well because I think anyone with a heart is going to be affected by it in some way, good or bad.

On whether she is attracted to a particular film genre

No, not particularly. I mean, you know, as long as the script is good, which so far they have been, I’ll, you know, I’ll be interested in it. It’s just so happens, I suppose, that I’ve been doing quite a bit of drama. But, you know, I’ve been reading some really great scripts that are comedy and that are a little bit more lighthearted. So yeah, just so long as the writing’s good, I’m there.

On what attracts her to dark roles, such as the ones she’s played in ‘The Lovely Bones’ and ‘Atonement’

I’m not particularly attracted to dark roles, well, you know, I am. I suppose with ‘Atonement’ and ‘Lovely Bones’ it just kind of worked out that way. But I love the depth to them. I love just their thinking process, I suppose, especially with ‘Atonement.’ And it just, you know, it takes a lot of thinking to really understand those kind of characters. There’s a lot of parts now where it’s very easy to just be the happy girl and, you know, there are some great characters at the moment who are more than that and who are also very uplifting, like Susie Salmon. So yeah, it just really depends.

On a favorite character from a book that she would like to play

There’s quite a lot and this is an extremely strange answer that I’m going to give you, but I really, really love the book ‘The Hobbit’ and I think Bilbo is such a great character. And in a way, I wish that he was a girl, so I could play him. I just think he’s great. But, I can’t really think of any female characters at the moment, sorry to say.

On how the film adaptation of ‘The Lovely Bones’ changes with the removal of the rape scene

I don’t think it changes at all, really. I think if anything it makes it stronger because I think it’s kind of the easy route to put that kind of scene in. It can make people uncomfortable. It can make people too disturbed. And I find that if they do it the way that we did in ‘The Lovely Bones,’ which was a very tasteful way to do it, I think, is to just leave it up to the audiences imagination and to let them think of it for themselves, and sometimes that can even be stronger. And so no, I don’t think it took away from the story at all.

Published on January 19, 2010 at 12:00 pm