BY MAIRÉAD WILMOT
IT’S a funny old juxtaposition, being a Hollywood actress yet living in Ardattin.
But you get the impression that that’s just the way the Ronan family like it.
Saoirse Ronan, of course, is probably the most famous thing to come out of Carlow since, em … Richie Kavanagh and Kathryn Thomas?
The 15-year-old is back in her home county after a whirlwind tour around the world promoting her new Peter Jackson directed flick The Lovely Bones.
Since 24 November, she has managed to take in London, New York, Los Angeles, Sydney, Toronto, Tokyo, Wellington and Dublin – which is probably enough to impress even Jules Verne. After two months of globe trotting, the Oscar-nominated actress now has her feet firmly back on Carlow soil.
Her dad (and travel companion) Paul Ronan, himself an established actor with roles in the likes of The Devil’s Own and Veronica Guerin, found a few minutes to spare to have a quick chat with The Nationalist about Saoirse’s seemingly out-of the-ordinary lifestyle.
Anyone hoping for glitz, glamour and the like is about to be disappointed, because Paul quickly dispelled any grand ideas about a champagne and caviar lifestyle.
The chat took place in the foyer of Mount Wolseley’s gym, but fear not: it was still a little bit Hollywood!
“Travelling around the world is tiring but fun, at the end of the day: you stay in nice hotels, eat in lovely restaurants and you experience a lot of things,” revealed Paul.
Despite being home for a few weeks with the sole intention of taking a break from the limelight, Saoirse was still busy working out in the gym with trainer, martial arts expert and stunt man extraordinaire John Koyama, who has been sent over to Tullow for a month from LA to prepare the Carlow starlet for her next role as Hannah, a teenage assassin.
John Koyama’s CV is pretty impressive, too: he’s worked on everything from The Last Samurai, a few of the Bond films, Tropic Thunder, Balls of Fury, Pirates of the Caribbean, Fool’s Gold and Lethal Weapon 4 to Spider-Man.
Paul tells us that Saoirse will also be tutored in firearms, too, so presumably once she is finished training for the film you wouldn’t want to cross her down a dark alleyway. “John is a topnotch trainer,” says Paul, who is fresh from a swim in the pool. “I would train here in Mount Wolseley myself over the years and Kelly-Ann (the gym manager) has bent over backwards to help us. I’ve a background in martial arts so I trained Saoirse for a while before John came on board.”
As Saoirse busies herself with hard-core workouts, Paul reveals that she is also on a special diet for the role, packed with fruit, vegetables and all things healthy.
“She eats very healthily anyway – lots of greens and protein and spuds,” he adds.
But no, before you ask (because I did), the production company that sent trainer John Koyama over haven’t gone so far as to fly a special chef to Carlow or anything. That, Paul says, would probably be a step too far!
“I do most of the cooking for dinner anyway, and my wife Monica cooks too,” Paul laughs, “so no, we wouldn’t have a chef in the house!”
As for her life in Carlow, the Ronan family definitely see their future here for the time being, with no plans to move to LA just yet. “When we are home, Saoirse does normal things: she keeps in contact with all of her old friends (from Ardattin National School). They are the best of friends and all hang out together.
“We’ve been very happy in Carlow since we moved here 11 or 12 years ago and, as far as we are concerned, we have no plans to move at this moment in time. Our friends are here, Saoirse’s friends are here and we’d miss them. We’ve got pretty much everything we need here.”
Paul says the family do everyday normal things when they are home, often heading to Carlow town for “the big shop” and sometimes popping into Lemongrass for a bite to eat.
Normal and all as the Ronan family are, there still has to be a bit of Hollywood about them! You don’t get an Oscar nomination, Bafta nominations, hang out with some of the biggest names in the business and escape unscathed.
“Well, Conor McAllister is her hairdresser and he comes with her when she has a premiere and he would co-ordinate with the stylists and make-up artists. The people who work with Saoirse are very protective of her, especially on publicity tours. You get very close.”
As the Carlow teen recuperates at home from her hectic few months, which her dad says were filled with rounds of interviews, he is quick to point out that there are “some times” when they find the spotlight on their lives “intrusive”.
In particular, a recent incident involving an interview with an English newspaper left a sour taste in their mouths. The Guardian, which has since printed an apology, claimed that Saoirse had attended Kilkenny College but, it said, had left because she was bullied.
“Saoirse never went to Kilkenny College. I don’t know where they got that from. We did look at Kilkenny College as a school and met the headmaster. There are wonderful people in that school and the college is beautiful, but the reason Saoirse never went there is because she got a job and couldn’t start,” said Paul, who adds “she never said was bullied either”.
Regardless of her life in the Hollywood fast lane, one thing is for sure: Saoirse Ronan has friends and family in Carlow, and that will never change.