FOR SAOIRSE RONAN, last night was an unqualified triumph.
The 23-year-old has blazed a trail of success since first hitting the world stage in 2008, but now she finally has a win at one of the big two Hollywood bashes to call her own.
Ronan had been nominated previously as an actress four times at both the Academy Awards and Golden Globes, but had come up short on each occasion. Last night’s win for her role in the coming-of-age comedy-drama Lady Bird, directed by Greta Gerwig, at the Golden Globes saw her finally break her duck, and is a very good sign indeed for her chances at the Oscars.
Not that it seems to have gone to her head – the Carlow native appeared simply overjoyed at her win during her acceptance speech, and made sure to let the world know her Mam was watching via Facetime.
“Oh thank you, my Mam’s on facetime over there on someone’s phone right now so hi!” she said upon taking the stage.
“I have no time at all to say thank you, but I just want to say how inspirational it has been to be in this room tonight, I’m here with my best friend Eileen.”
I just want to thank… all of the women who I love so much in my own life who support me every single day, my mother who’s on Facetime and Margot (Robbie) and all of my friends and my family and actually everyone who’s in this room, so thank you.
Later, Ronan and Gerwig took a series of questions for a joint interview backstage.
“I don’t know whether or not I’m supposed to bring this on stage,” Ronan said, referring to her award. Eventually she decided to set it aside: “I’m putting this down it’s too heavy.”
Asked as to whether or not her own formative years were as exciting as those of her role in Lady Bird, as the eponymous high school student protagonist, the actress was unequivocal in her response.
“It was, yes it was, I’ve been very, very lucky that from an early age I’ve gotten to do what I love to do, and have been surrounded by really brilliant creative people all my life,” she said.
When I was 17 and 18, that was happening. There’s definitely a time when you’re trying to figure out what your role is, and so I was sort of moving into this next stage of going from being a child actor to being a grown up.
“The role of Lady Bird wasn’t around back then, and that was only a few years ago. So it’s special to have a character like this.”
Ronan wasn’t the only Irish artist to end the night on a high – British-Irish director and writer Martin McDonagh, whose other credits include In Bruges and Seven Psychopaths, also won best screenplay on the night for the film Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri.
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