Saoirse Ronan, Vogue’s August 2018 cover star, is only 24, but has the résumé of a much more seasoned actor, and the accolades to boot. Only 12 when she was nominated for her first Academy Award, Ronan has been critically adored time and again, from Atonement to Brooklyn, to last year’s Lady Bird. Her next role is set to be just as raved about, as Mary Stuart in House of Cards creator Beau Willimon’s Mary Queen of Scots.
For our cover story, Ronan caught up with Irish novelist Sally Rooney in their shared home country, and discussed her career and where she’s headed next. Here are five things you might not know about Saoirse Ronan (and if you don’t know how to pronounce her name, here’s that, too):
1. Ronan was born in the Bronx: Her father, Paul, was a working actor and lived in New York with her mother, Monica, when Saoirse was born in 1994. The Ronans moved back to Ireland when Saoirse was 3. “Well, I was born in New York,” Ronan told the Irish Times in February 2018. “But then I moved to Carlow. I went to school there. All my family are from Dublin and I have a Dublin accent. I don’t know where I am from. I am just Irish.”
2. She auditioned for the part of Luna Lovegood in Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix, but didn’t get the role. Ronan later recalled her disappointment: “I was too young,” she said, “but at the time I thought, I’d love to be in Harry Potter. When I was younger, I used to think they had the best job in the world.” Never fear; she went on to get an Oscar nomination at age 12 for her role in Atonement in 2007.
3. And she was supposed to be in The Lord of the Rings. Ronan was in talks with LOTR franchise director Peter Jackson, but ultimately had to turn down a role as an elf due to scheduling conflicts.
4. Ronan was an avid supporter of the reproductive rights campaign in Ireland to repeal the eighth amendment banning abortion. “I know people who had to travel abroad in order to get an abortion, and that’s when I knew I would speak out,” she tells Vogue. When the eighth amendment was indeed repealed, she was “so proud to see family and friends, and people I wouldn’t have expected to vote yes, choose to give Irishwomen their rights.”
5. Ronan is close friends with the Internet’s boyfriend, Timothée Chalamet, and has a nickname for him: Pony. She told The New York Times of her Lady Bird costar, “He’ll come up to Greta [Gerwig] and me and nuzzle us.” (To Vogue, she referred to him as “Timmy.”)
Watch Saoirse Ronan on Doing Her Own Stunts, Hosting SNL and Pronouncing Her Name: