Saoirse Ronan has said that her mum has always kept her grounded and that having her on set as a child actor was a memory she will cherish forever.
The 21-year-old star, who is nominated for Best Actress at the Oscars for her role in Brooklyn, was previously recognised by the Academy when she was just 13 years old for her breakout role in Atonement in 2007.
Speaking to New York Magazine, Ronan praised her mother for all the support and love she gave her growing up as a child actor.
“To have someone with you from 10 to 19 when you’re on a set, who has perspective and is only there to look out for you, it really means that you have a more realistic way of looking at this entire world,” she said.
“I was talking to someone who started out as a child actor last night, and went on to do incredible things, and we were both saying it was a huge, huge influence to have our mothers with us when we were young and mothers who came from more of an ethical standpoint than a business one,” she explained.
Producer Andrew Karpen, actress Saoirse Ronan with her mother Monica Ronan at a screening of Atonement in 2007
Ronan, who was born in the Bronx, but raised primarily in Carlow, said she feels the pressure of her acting career more now that she is older.
“I feel it a bit now, and I could see a change when Hanna came out, because it was the first sort of commercial success I’d had, apart from Atonement, and I was very young then - a lot of that went over my head,” she said.
“Part of it was that I’d grown up outside L.A., so I wasn’t exposed to the competitive side of that world, where you feel like you have to do a thousand and one things in order to keep up with everyone else.
“I didn’t have that pressure of feeling like I needed to be exposed more, or do a big studio film in order to get more work. It was down to the type of work I wanted to do,” she added.
