Saoirse Ronan doesn’t get cast for her looks.
The 24-year-old actress insists she has often played girls who "had nothing pretty about them" so she doesn’t worry about getting cast in movies based on her appearance.
She told The Irish Times: "I really don’t. I suppose I was playing girls from an early age that had nothing pretty about them – they were weird or they were tomboys – and in order to do a good job I just had to go: well, f**k how I look. I never got cast for my looks anyway."
And Saoirse is happy to see projects in Hollywood that feature ordinary looking people.
She said: "I was watching ‘Roseanne’ recently and there’s a scene with Laurie and the rest, and they’re drinking and chatting and they’re all normal-looking. What I loved, as someone who isn’t Marilyn Monroe, was to see Lena Dunham in ‘Girls’. That meant so much. What we found with Lady Bird is that, while it’s a brilliant film and everyone is so great in it, in the end the reason why it could have an effect on the industry is because it made money."
Saoirse also believes that men have it easier in Hollywood when it comes to looks.
She said: "So many male actors are odd-looking, and they’re just considered to be interesting, and they have amazing careers, and they play romantic figures. But I wonder: does that just maybe go back to how women view men? We are, in general, more forgiving. We want to see the good [in men]. Women in relationships hold on to so much hope. ‘OK,’ they think. ‘He looks like this, but I can see this. I can see something else no one else can.’ It’s a deep thing, and it’s hard to say if it will shift."
Saoirse Ronan: ‘I don’t get cast for my looks’
