Saoirse Ronan’s husband, Jack Lowden, was the one to suggest that she play Rona in The Outrun.
“He handed the book to me, and he said, ‘You have to play this,’” Ronan, 30, told The Times in an interview published on Sunday, September 15.
Lowden served as a producer for the drama, which was based on Amy Liptrot’s 2016 memoir of the same name. The Outrun — which stars Stephen Dillane, Saskia Reeves and Paapa Essiedu — centers around Rona (Ronan) who returns to her homeland of Scotland’s Orkney Islands to heal from her past.
Ronan, who costarred with Lowden in 2018’s Mary Queen of Scots, noted, “If you find people that you love and you trust creatively, why would you not want to keep working with them?”
Ronan, who refers to her husband as “comrade,” gushed that she and Lowden have “very high expectations for one another.” (The pair tied the knot in July.)
“When I tried out Rona’s Orcadian accent on him for The Outrun, he said, ‘You’re not doing that, are you?’” she recalled.
While reflecting on her role in The Outrun, Ronan explained that she had a personal connection to the story.
“[Jack] and I were trying to keep an eye on the representation of Rona, how nothing else matters to her except alcohol but also remembering that she is human, so anyone can see themselves in her,” Ronan said.
However, alcoholism is “a world I know really well and I’ve been on the receiving end of the pain caused by it,” she said. “I’ve watched people I love change because of addiction. There’s a helplessness you feel when you watch someone you love — friends my age and one in particular who I’m close to — go through that. What will be etched in my brain forever is that switch, when the glaze goes over someone’s eyes and they are gone.”
She continued, “If you’ve become second best to alcohol you become resentful, so for this role I needed to put my own feeling towards it to one side. And I needed not to be angry about that any more.”
Ronan noted that alcoholism “was a topic that I wanted to explore at some stage in my life, to understand it better, to heal.” She added, “I don’t think I would have been secure enough as a person to take something like that on even a few years ago.”
While growing up in the Irish countryside Co Carlow, Ronan explained that “the kids drank because they were bored so they would go into a field and have vodka or cider.”
Now, The Outrun has altered her relationship with alcohol. “I’m more conscious of my intake — and there’s more people of my generation who are choosing not to drink any more because of how it makes them feel,” she shared.
The Outrun hits theaters on October 4.
If you or someone you know is struggling with substance abuse, contact the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA) National Helpline at 1-800-662-HELP (4357).