Three-time Oscar nominee Saoirse Ronan has revealed to RTÉ Entertainment that playing the monarch Mary Queen of Scots has toughened her up off-screen.
The Carlow-raised actress, who stars alongside fellow Academy Award-nominee Margot Robbie in the royal drama, walked the red carpet at a special screening of the film at the sumptuous Stella Theatre in Dublin on Friday evening.
Speaking to RTÉ Entertainment, the 24-year-old Hollywood star said that she has carried some of Mary's commanding and resilient character into her life off-screen.
She said, "I think I have, actually. I could feel it when I was playing her that any tough decision that I had to make at that time, and anything after that as well, I just sort of went, 'Well, even if I have to upset a few people or let a few people down with this decision I know it's the right thing to do and I have to follow through with it'.
"There was something about having that commitment to a decision that she had and I honestly think from playing her, she's given that to me."
The period drama tells the story of the 16th-century power struggle between Ronan's titular character and her first cousin, Britain's Queen Elizabeth I, played by Margot Robbie. The two actresses met for the first time on set when their characters finally came head-to-head, which Ronan admitted piled on the pressure.
"It was my first day as well, so I hadn't played her yet, basically," she said of filming the scene. "And I had been waiting so long to do it and Margot had been shooting for like three weeks already. It was her last day and there was just all this sort of anticipation and excitement really that we were finally going to get to see each other. Because we hadn't seen each other while we'd been rehearsing; we stayed separate.
"It's a long scene and she goes through so many emotions in it so I wanted to make sure I captured who she was. But I loved it, and I loved doing it with her [Robbie] as well."
Ronan's co-star Jack Lowden, who plays her love interest Henry Darnley, told us that the actress is so relaxed on set that "it is like her living room". She agreed that since she's grown up working on sets and that having started working on TV series The Clinic aged nine, they are comfortable places for her to be.
"I've been doing it for so long… it's mad and it's chaotic and noisy and there's loads of people around and there's loads of lights and everything," she explained.
"Like, even though this [gestures around the red carpet] is the same, you don't get the same calm, but when I'm on set I'm just totally fine.
"And I think it's simply because I'm so used it, you know. I love it."
Mary Queen of Scots opens in cinemas in Ireland on January 18.
