By: April Crain
Here is our round table interview with Saoirse Ronan from the upcoming film THE HOST. You need to show April lots of LOVE. As you can see she did a ton of transcribing and let me tell you it is time consuming. Make sure to follow her on Twitter and please SHARE.
In case you are wondering how to pronounce her name it sound like this: "Ser Sha"
You can watch our Exclusive Interview with Max and Jake HERE-
Imagine the Cutest Irish accent you have ever heard. Seriously. Okay Lets begin.
Saoirse: I got a really bad cold a couple of weeks ago and I couldn't talk, I had no voice at all and I still don't have it back... Do you guys want a gummy panda?
(laughter throughout the whole room)
Interviewer: I don't think I've ever been offered a gummy panda in my whole life.
MAX IRONS Interview From THE HOST Hollywood Junket
Interviewer: I've never seen those before.(referring to the bag of "gummy panda's" Saoirse was eating)
S: The gelatin in Jellies' coats your throat and it's much better for you than lozenges because lozenges, they only cure your throat for like a few minutes and then it actually dries up your throat again, so you have to buy more.
I: Yeah, Menthol is one of the worst ingredients...
THE HOST Review. Go See It
S: Give them more money! Stick it to the Man!
I: Exactly
I: Where do you get those?? That's amazing
S: I don't know... The guys got them for me in the hotel
I: Same thing as gummy bears?
S: No! They're gummy PANDA'S, completely different
(laughter)
I: So this is quite the different performance from what we saw you do with Hanna.
S: Yup... Hope So
I: You still have a lot of action here, but a lot of this, the intelligence that goes with the character, was it much easier filming this one without quite as much action? Or because of the cerebral nature of the character did that really tap into new avenues and new synapses for you?
S: See, Now I felt like Hanna was a bit like that as well, um, so Yeah, but I know what you meant, I think mentally it was on par with Hanna, physically it wasn't quite as draining, Hanna was very tiring cus there was so much action in it. But no it was great, I mean I like thinking about characters, and I like when characters think, and so it was wonderful not only to play one character who is very much sort of driven by her mental thoughts and the decisions that are floating around in her head that are being made by someone else and then to hop over and play someone else who is very impulsive, and very much a fighter and which is Melanie, and who is just very human, you know, so it was really nice for me to be able to play two characters that were so completely different to the other one.
I: Do you ever feel like a crazy woman though with like the voices battling each other?
S: I do that a lot anyway, I talk to myself a lot anyway and so no...
I: But as two different people? (laughter)
S: Well, Ya, I did... Now this is awkward now, You know all my secrets... ummm... They don't look like Panda's umm. Anyway, I'm a bit jet lagged, sorry! Uhh What did you ask me?
I: about if you ever feel crazy really?
S: Well, no, I find maybe it's because I'm an only child, I don't know, That I pretend I'm other characters anyways when I'm on my own, so it's something that I do quite a lot and I didn't really think about it when we were going into it. I didn't think that it would be quite a natural thing for me to do but I really felt comfortable doing it in front of 100 people on set. It was great because we recorded the VO (voice over) before we started shooting and we played it and a little ear piece that only I could hear and only Andrew could hear so they could time Melanie's lines to whatever I say and leave as much as a gap as they want to leave and things like that. But it simply felt just like I was acting with myself and I liked it! It was, you know, I liked doing it! I mean, She's a bit of a diva, That Saoirse one, but, you know it was hard to get used to her way of doing this but.. (laughter)
Read the entire interview after the Jump...
I: One of the really interesting things about your performance is the different cadence, vocal cadence and elocution you had for both characters, how difficult was it for you to work on that, to really delineate the two voices
S: Um, It wasn't so hard, I mean I think it was an obvious choice for them to have two different accents, we needed that in order to differentiate the two characters, considering that for the majority of the films we don't really see Melanie, we physically just don't see her, someone else has control over her body, so we consider this body to now be Wanda's. Also we needed her to come from another place, we needed her to really sound like she had a different background and she'd had a completely different life even if they had the same... it would have been too confusing anyways if they had the same voice. And even just with how where the placement was in myself... They were different. Melanie was very immediate. Everything was very immediate with her. Whereas Wanda's, I dunno, the delivery of most of her stuff was very uh.. what's the word, controlled but just really considered.
I: I know it's writing but I know the way that Wanda forms sentences versus Melanie is very proper
S: VERY Proper
I: versus Melanie being very "slang" I guess
S: Yeah, she's a human and she's on the run... she doesn't have time to form proper sentences, you know she's very much
I: Well and she is also 17 and wanda is....
S: Everything is very practical, Sorry it's going to take me longer it say stuff, everything is more practical with Melanie, as so I think that comes through with her movement, with her physicality, um and her voice and how she speaks and her attitude towards things, versus Wanda who doesn't really have any threat you know, Until Melanie comes back
I: What was it when you first read the script and the book if you had read the book earlier, what was it that spoke to you about Melanie and Wanda that just tapped into you?
S: Um, I think the struggle that both of them are going through to get what they want and Wanda, Wanda just simply wants peace. Wanda is the most good, and she's simply a perfect soul and I thought that would be something that would be very interesting to play to play someone who really couldn't have any sort of human impulses or human reactions to things that we would naturally fly off the handle about or get angry about or cry about um, that was something she sort of has to get used to as the film goes on. And with Melanie um, I kind of sympathized with the fact that she was completely on her own and she had so much responsibility put on her shoulders by having to look after her younger brother and having the knowledge you know that her father killed himself in order to protect them she really had no one left and the only hope that she has is this get away, hideaway cave that her uncle has built for whatever humans are left, that's the only hope she kind of has left and she's constantly striving to get them there, and I Really respect Melanie as a character, I really respect her, I love that she never backs down but yet as the film goes on she really starts to empathize with Wanda and understand this terrible situation that Melanie has put her in, so.
I: I also find it interesting that with this and Stephenie's previous work, 'Twilight' there became the whole like Jacob, Team Edward, but no one has to pick a team here because both guys get to be with someone, you know
S: that's true, that's true.. eventually, Spoiler Alert!
I: I know, I know, I won't give it away, but the love story aspect, I can't recall that you've really gotten to explore anything like that in any of your film's have you?
S: I have a little bit, not as much as in 'the Host', I mean I did a little bit in the 'Lovely Bones', I don't know if you've seen 'Byzantium' yet there's a little bit of that there but it's not really the focus of the film like it is in this you know, it was new for me to have romance be such a massive part of the story, ya.
I: Was it every awkward or like strange new emotions for you to explore on camera for you?
S: No, I mean it wasn't, I had done it before, but I just had to do it more often with this. I mean that very first take is always awkward for two actors I think but after that you just kind of get it
I: It didn't look awkward...
S: Good! That was probably like the 5th take
I: I talked to Max the other day about when he has to slap you. Was that awkward for you filming?
S: It was just funny
I: Was it powerful? How was your reaction to filming those scenes, and Ian choking Wanda?
S: Um, They definitely needed to be controlled and you needed to make sure that it made sense to do that, you know? Cus it is a strange reaction. It's kind of, I think you'll see on Jake's face as well when he's doing that scene that he's confused by what's going on. Everyone's quite confused through this whole film, because we're all being pulled in different directions, we all want different things, we all want that girl or that guy but we can't have them for whatever reason, because one of them is an alien. (laughter) But I mean when we did the slapping scene, we did this bit where I had to like bite, I didn't actually do it but like bite Max's lip, we just laughed and laughed, but yeah, it makes that they would react in this way, it's kind of, it's a bit shocking
I: Yeah, I found it very powerful when I saw it in the movie
S: Oh good, In a good way?
I: Yeah! Yeah! I took a friend with me that had never read the book or anything and we were both "Oh wow!" , taken aback, it was really great
S: okay, Yeah! Because I mean what else would they do, this thing is a threat to them, this, this...
I: "IT"
S: Yeah! This well, Parasite in their eyes that's taken over their loved ones body, is a threat to them, is somebody who means death to them when they instantly come across it, when they initially come across it, so for her to suddenly say "I love you" or to be attracted to them or something like that, you know they don't know how to react to something like that.
I: Now being an only child, it's quite interesting seeing you interacting with Chandler playing your little brother
S: Yes, someone else said that yesterday
I: So how did you go about, did you get to hang out with him? Because you had a great older sister/younger brother bond going on in the film
S: Oh good! Well, I mean I don't have any brothers or sisters but I feel like I kind of act like a big sister with any kids that I'm working with so I mean, with Chandler, and do you guys know "Peppa Pig"? Do you know the cartoon? So I worked with "Peppa Pig" last year and I mean it was the same kind of thing, I've always been around kids, even though I haven't had any brothers or sisters myself and I've always had just that kind of natural instinct to look after them and take care of them and stuff. My best friend, Christopher is a few years younger than me and he's like my brother so I've always, just always kind of been like that and Chandler's lovely and gorgeous and you know and we just go on very well. I like boy's as well. I think they're great when they're that age, you know they're into their football and video games and things like that and I thought he was fun
I: Yeah the two of you are just magical together on screen
S: Aww, he's a great actor isn't he?
I: I love the scene in the cave with the glow worms
S: He's brilliant, He's really brilliant, yeah I really liked him in it
I: What's your favorite scene to watch, maybe it wasn't to act but when you see the final product?
S: I think all the stuff in the caves is very beautiful, I think you know, the mirrors, and things like that and the wheat field all that kind of stuff which they put in afterwards, is very beautiful, very kind of epic and grand you know they're taking a landscape that's so simple and really making it something interesting to look at.
I: It IS very grand, because reading the book, I picture it but it was such a bigger scale
S: I know, Oh Good, I didn't know how they were going to do it because when we did it, obviously we didn't have it there, we didn't have the mirrors or anything like that. When I saw it I thought it looked amazing. It just really opens your eyes, It opens your eyes to what humans can do. You know how they can be so practical and so kind of imaginative at the same time. And that's something that this one mind of Uncle Jeb's creates over you know 20 years or something that he created all this and that's something. Cus this is the real question in the story is I mean, How much do humans really bring to the table and if we're taken away from this planet, would it be better off without us, would it be, obviously it would be a more harmonious place I suppose, but um, It's an interesting concept I think you know, cus we are such a big part of this world.
I: Now you've worked with a variety of different directors that each have their own style, how would you describe working with Andrew?
S: I loved working with Andrew. I love Andrew because he has a great attitude towards film making, he wants to, he doesn't take it too seriously, he wants to just have fun and have a laugh and he does and he's great. I mean he's very very specific about the look of the set, and shots and things like that, he's really really quite meticulous about all that sort of stuff. But it works and it looks beautiful on screen and you see something like 'Gattaca' or I know he didn't direct it but 'The Truman Show' which he wrote which is, the style is so important and that comes from him.
I: Now had you read 'The Host' before you got involved with this project?
S: No
I: Have you read it since?
S: Yeah, I read it before I started shooting
I: What do you think of Andrew's adaptation?
S: I think it's brilliant. I think it was a very difficult thing to do to take 600 pages or whatever it is and condense that into 120 and try and include the history of all these characters, especially Wanda, this world, and really tell a very well developed well structured story and I think he did that, You know. He's a terrific writer he really is and he's a real artist as well so I think he did a fantastic job, but I think it was really tough task to do something like that
I: You know I told Jake, that I think that I think that this is one time that the film is far better than the book
S: Oh Wow, Okay, Don't tell Stephenie that!
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