Exclusive: Saoirse Ronan On Getting Into Character For ‘Ammonite’
Coming out this week from Neon is Ammonite, written and directed by Francis Lee and starring Kate Winslet and Saoirse Ronan with Gemma Jones, James McArdle, Alec Secareanu and Fiona Shaw.
In 1800s England, acclaimed but unrecognized fossil hunter Mary Anning (Kate Winslet) works alone on the rugged Southern coastline. With the days of her famed discoveries behind her, she now searches for common fossils to sell to tourists to support herself and her ailing mother. When a wealthy visitor entrusts Mary with the care of his wife Charlotte Murchison (Saoirse Ronan), she cannot afford to turn his offer down. Proud and relentlessly passionate about her work, Mary initially clashes with her unwelcome guest, but despite the distance between their social class and personalities, an intense bond begins to develop, compelling the two women to determine the true nature of their relationship.
For Ronan, who’s done a good share of period dramas, this film is actually intimate in size and scope. Her last three films (Little Women, Mary, Queen of Scots and The Seagull) had a huge ensemble and set productions and with Ammonite, it’s mostly a two-handed. That’s new and welcome area for Ronan.
BlackFilmandTV.com recently spoke with Ronan on taking on this new film and getting into character.
What attracted you to the project?
Saoirse Ronan: It was a combination of things really. Little Women was the project that I was on when I agreed to do Ammonite. I think that played a big part in that actually, because Little Women, which I absolutely loved doing was a big movie in terms of the amount of people that were involved in each scene and the amount of dialogue we had per scene. My character in particular was a very larger than life girl. I could naturally feel myself moving towards something to follow up that movie that was much quieter and, and more intimate, just to mix it up a little bit. Ammonite came along at the perfect time. Kate was already attached and she was someone that I had obviously wanted to work with forever because she’s brilliant at what she does. We had also met randomly at different things over the years such as actress roundtables and photoshoots and press junkets and parties and things like that. We were always kind of on the same wavelength in terms of how we worked and how we viewed work. I knew that that would be a lovely experience. If I was going to essentially do a two hander with someone, I would want it to be with someone like Kate. God's Own Country was a film that I really loved when it came out. And Francis's script for Ammonite was incredibly sort of simple and beautiful and I was just really drawn to do something like that.
How would you best describe your character Charlotte?
Saoirse Ronan: She's somebody who's at a very, very dark place in her life when we meet her. The movie, in general, is not something that's overly dramatic. So there's never these big moments of emotion or depression, but that is essentially what she's going through at the at the beginning. She's in what they would have called a melancholic state, but she was depressed. She’s just lost a child and is very much grieving for that. Because of the time period, and the societal pressures to the chin up and put on a brave face, there's no conversation being had between her and her husband about this tragedy that's happened in their lives. She's repressing an awful loss. And with the results, she's drowned a version of who she originally was. Very gradually, very slowly she starts to come out of that. I'd never played someone who had been through a grievance like that before, and a loss like that before. I thought that would be interesting to discover, and play.
The elements of the whole piece that really fascinates me the most and the thing that I'm most interested in is the work and this spotlight on one person’s, not only their artistic work in the world of fossils and paleontology, but the manual labor that comes with that. This was something that Mary Anning did on her own basically and and the more research I did into the real life Manny Anning, the more respect I had for the laborious work that went into that final product, which was a tiny little ammonite that she would sell to tourists. I found that really interesting that the relationship that these women eventually have is something that was born out of their collaboration with one another and their shared love of the work.
How would you relate to the character?
Saoirse Ronan: In terms of relating to her, the place that she gets to in terms of the love of the work that she has, that's something that I can definitely relate to. This collective vision for something and working with another person or a group of people very intimately to make this one thing beautiful. This is something that I've been really lucky enough to have grown up doing. I've grown up doing that work and that's something that really excites me so I related to her in that way. That growing excitement and love that she had for that whole process. She is a lot better than that, which is why I loved her actually, stepping aside and allowing the spotlight to be on somebody else essentially. That's the qualities that Charlotte has, which I really admired.
What did you do to get into character?
Saoirse Ronan: There were exterior influences like the costume, and apart from Mary, Queen of Scots, which was still a real statement and an act of power, I hadn't really worn very restrictive clothing, regardless of the time period I was in. Even though I’ve done period pieces before, I'm usually not the the girl in the film that wears the corset or the pushy dresses. So this was very new territory for me. I wasn't used to either being in a present day movie or a period where I couldn't move about and wave my arms and be loud or big, or whatever. That was something that was definitely affected by the clouds. I became very restricted the way I communicate at the character.
The place where the film is set is a beautiful place and, and it's where Mary Anning was found. That's inspiring to be around as well. It's known as the Jurassic Coast. There's a lot of fossils that are still being found there every single day and you soak up so much from from the atmosphere that you’re in. So all of those things really helped me and then I think more than anything, just having those two weeks rehearsals with Francis and Kate and it was really just the three of us in a room. Sometimes James McCarver would come in and Fiona Shaw, but it was very intimate. We had a lot of time to just really discuss things and see what we wanted to bring out.