Murder and hope with "The Lovely Bones"
Elise Bassett
Issue date: 11/25/09 Section: Arts & Entertainment
Oscar Winner Peter Jackson, the director of Lord of the Rings, has taken on a new project. Alice Sebold's bestseller The Lovely Bones is a story about a teenage girl named Susie Salmon who was brutally raped, murdered, and dismembered. Throughout the story she watches, from her personalized heaven, her family and friends deal with their grief.
Oscar nominee Saoirse Ronan is playing Susie. Dealing with such serious and emotional material, this role was challenging for Ronan.
"It's a very serious subject matter and it was always going to be a challenge for me because I hadn't done anything quite that deep before," said Ronan, "But, when we dealt with very emotional, intense scenes, there would be a lot of discussion between me and Pete and Fran, and Philippa who are the writers so we were on the same page."
Ronan as a person is a very upbeat person. However she says that this almost made it easier to play a character who is surrounded by such heavy gloom.
"Sometimes it's quite easy to be the opposite to how you are in real life for me," she explained, "I thought about was something I loved so dearly being taken away from me."
Ronan wanted to wait to read the book until after she had made the movie. "I just really wanted to focus on the screenplay version, and also I felt like I was a little bit too young to read it at the time, I was 13," she said, "the book is little bit more visual and a bit more violent than the film, so it just made sense."
Ronan read the book this year and fell in love with it, "I think because I had been through the whole experience of making the movie and living through the story, I think that helps me to really connect with the book, and to understand the book fully. And plus, the story itself kind of makes you go there as well because I think anyone with a heart is going to be affected by it in some way, good or bad."
The book The Lovely Bones is a very emotional book, Ronan said that in reading it has changed her outlook on the world and life.
Oscar nominee Saoirse Ronan is playing Susie. Dealing with such serious and emotional material, this role was challenging for Ronan.
"It's a very serious subject matter and it was always going to be a challenge for me because I hadn't done anything quite that deep before," said Ronan, "But, when we dealt with very emotional, intense scenes, there would be a lot of discussion between me and Pete and Fran, and Philippa who are the writers so we were on the same page."
Ronan as a person is a very upbeat person. However she says that this almost made it easier to play a character who is surrounded by such heavy gloom.
"Sometimes it's quite easy to be the opposite to how you are in real life for me," she explained, "I thought about was something I loved so dearly being taken away from me."
Ronan wanted to wait to read the book until after she had made the movie. "I just really wanted to focus on the screenplay version, and also I felt like I was a little bit too young to read it at the time, I was 13," she said, "the book is little bit more visual and a bit more violent than the film, so it just made sense."
Ronan read the book this year and fell in love with it, "I think because I had been through the whole experience of making the movie and living through the story, I think that helps me to really connect with the book, and to understand the book fully. And plus, the story itself kind of makes you go there as well because I think anyone with a heart is going to be affected by it in some way, good or bad."
The book The Lovely Bones is a very emotional book, Ronan said that in reading it has changed her outlook on the world and life.
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