Saoirse Ronan

Saoirse Ronan, born 12 April 1994, is an Irish film actress best known for her roles in Atonement (for which she recieved an Academy Award nomination) and The Lovely Bones. She is one of the most prominent teen actresses at the moment. She is known for her portrayal of mature characters, who rarely are Irish.

Roles:

 * Atonement as Briony Tallis
 * City of Ember as Lina Mayfleet
 * The Lovely Bones as Susie Salmon
 * The Way Back as Irena
 * Hanna as Hanna Heller
 * The Host as Melanie Stryder
 * Violet & Daisy as Daisy
 * Byzantium as Eleanor

This actress provides examples of:

 * Blue Eyes
 * Creepy Child: Or at least Briony is.
 * Hanna to some extent.
 * Dyeing for Your Art: She'll be a redhead in Byzantium.
 * Fake Nationality: Her specialty. Saoirse has played English, Scottish, Polish and Finnish characters. She's also played a couple of Americans but since she was born in New York (to Irish parents) that may or may not count.
 * Hair of Gold
 * Hidden Depths: Learned to play Beethoven while working on Byzantium even though she didn't have to and had never played piano before.
 * Identical Stranger: Resembles a younger version of French actress Sylvie Testud.
 * Irish Names: Saoirse is classically pronounced 'Seer-sha', but the actress prefers to pronounce her own name as 'Sur-sha'. Feel free to ask her why if you get the chance.
 * Meaningful Name: Saoirse means "freedom" in Irish and her middle name Una means "unity", which may tell you something about her parent's political views.
 * No Pronunciation Guide: Imagine her explaining the pronunciation of her name every time, must be really annoying.
 * Playing Against Type: Hanna is easily her most physical role.
 * Sexy Backless Outfit: At the Lovely Bones premiere.
 * She Is All Grown Up
 * Star Making Role: Briony Tallis in Atonement.
 * Take a Level In Badass: Hanna, and how.
 * What Could Have Been: Auditioned for the role of Luna Lovegood, which went to Evanna Lynch.
 * Turned down the role of Lyra in The Golden Compass because she didn't want such a long-term commitment to a project. Fears turned out to be unfounded anyway, as the film wasn't successful enough to warrant a full trilogy.
 * Auditioned for the part of Katniss Everdeen.