Saoirse finds her prince
Love reigns for the Irish star as she continues to shine
With not one, not two, but three Academy Award nominations to her name, Saoirse Ronan is one of the hottest actresses in Hollywood right now.
At just 24, she’s in the enviable position of flitting between Los Angeles, New York and London, picking and choosing which roles she accepts, what starstudded events she’ll attend and which gowns she’ll don on the red carpet.
It’s the kind of life that would lead some youngsters to lose their heads, but not Saoirse. “I’m a homebody,” the New York-born, Irish-raised actress confides, adding that she’d prefer to knit, cook and read history books at home in Dublin than party all night in Hollywood. “It’s lovely to have a normal life.”
However, the actress – who
spent time in New Zealand as a 13-year-old, starring in Sir Peter Jackson’s The Lovely Bones – was all up for losing her head, literally, in the new biopic Mary Queen of Scots.
Saoirse plays the title role in the movie, which recounts the turbulent life of charismatic Mary Stuart, who married at 16, was widowed at 18, then left France to claim her birth right – the Scottish throne.
Even the most seething feud between modern royals pales in comparison to the face-off between Mary and her cousin Queen Elizabeth I, played by Margot Robbie, who ruled England and saw Mary as a threat. To put it mildly, things didn’t end well.
Despite their shared billing, Saoirse and Margot only met once during filming – they deliberately avoided coming face to face beforehand to build tension.
“We really, really didn’t want to see each other,” explains Saoirse. “I love Margot and wanted to hang out with her, but we wanted our meeting to be this special thing. We were blubbering like idiots. We held each other for ages. I have never experienced anything like that.”
In reality, Mary and Elizabeth never met in person, but another of the film’s revelations – that one of Mary’s three husbands, Lord Darnley, was gay – is true. He’s played by hunky Scottish actor Jack Lowden – and he and Saoirse certainly had more chemistry than they were able to show while cameras were rolling.
Since filming wrapped, the pair have holidayed together in Italy, the Greek Islands and the Caribbean, and have even been spotted doing yoga. They also wear matching claddagh rings, which are traditionally given in Ireland as a token of love.
“They were inseparable at a celebrity screening of the movie in New York,” reports a witness. “They seemed very happy and sweet.”
It won’t be long, say friends, before Saoirse takes Dunkirk star Jack, 28, to visit her parents, actor Paul and homemaker Monica, in the Irish countryside.
It was thanks to Paul, who was acting in an art-house film while Saoirse was at primary school, that she was discovered. The Oscar nominee recalls, “They needed a kid for it and they asked me to do it as a favour. I just loved it as soon as I started.”
However, it was her beloved “mam” Monica who spent every day with her on set while Saoirse worked as a child. In light of the recent scandals that have rocked Hollywood amid the #MeToo movement,
the actress tells, “I don’t know what would have happened if she hadn’t been around. I’m sure I would’ve been exposed to that, but she protected me. Because of her, I was never a victim and I’m very, very thankful.”