SAOIRSE RONAN
Actor tells how she ditched make-up to look real as a teenager on screen
SAOIRSE Ronan spent hours in make-up to look flawless as Mary, Queen of Scots.
But for her latest role, director Greta Gerwig asked her to bare her facial flaws to the world.
The Irish star has had acne for the last two years – and it helped her win an Oscar nomination as a schoolgirl in Lady Bird.
Ronan, 23, said: “I started to get bad skin when I was about 21.
“I was doing a lot of press and I did a play and my skin was just under so much strain.
“I started to get acne. I had never had it before and I wasn’t insecure and self-conscious about it.
“I went into Lady Bird and the hair and make-up girls and Greta asked me if I would consider not covering it up so much.
“I thought it would be a missed opportunity not to represent teenagers as they actually are.
“I don’t think it takes anything away from her, either.”
Lady Bird, Gerwig’s debut as a solo director, is a coming-of-age film about a teenage girl growing up in northern California in 2002.
The heroine Christine gives herself the nickname Lady Bird to stand out in a boring town.
The film follows her relationships with mum Marion, played by Laurie Metcalf, her best friend Julie, played by Beanie Feldstein, and her dalliances with two disappointing teenage boys, played by Lucas Hedges and Oscar nominee Timothee Chalamet.
Ronan, who was born in New York but brought up in Ireland, said: “I’ve watched it twice. The first time I watched it with my best friend Julie and then I watched it with my mam Marion.
“So even though my relationships, more so with me and my mam, are quite different to her and her mother’s, when they go shopping, or she and Julie are just having a laugh, that’s something we can all relate to.”
Ronan said she was blown away by Gerwig, star of Frances Ha, Mistress America and Greenberg.
She added: “She’s worked with so many other brilliant filmmakers over the years. She’s taken so much