‘The Outrun’ is based on Amy Liptrot’s 2016 memoir about the author’s recovery from alcoholism
Saoirse Ronan is getting candid about her latest role.
In an interview with The Times published on Sunday, Sept. 15, the Foe star spoke about how The Outrun affected her relationship with alcohol.
Ronan, 30, stars as Rona in The Outrun, an adaptation of Amy Liptrot’s 2016 memoir of the same name about the author’s recovery from alcoholism. After acting in The Outrun, Ronan said that she has changed her alcohol consumption habits.
“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,” the Little Womenactress said.
Saoirse Ronan in ‘The Outrun’ as Rona.
Sony Pictures Classics
Speaking to The Times, the star said that alcoholism is “a world I know really well and I’ve been on the receiving end of the pain caused by it.”
Ronan added that she’s seen “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,” she continued. “What will be etched in my brain for ever is that switch, when the glaze goes over someone’s eyes and they are gone.”
“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,” she explained. “And I needed not to be angry about that any more.”
Alcoholism was a topic she “wanted to explore at some stage” in her life to better understand and heal: “I don’t think I would have been secure enough as a person to take something like that on even a few years ago.”
When growing up in the Irish countryside of Co Carlow, Ronan said that kids would drink vodka or cider in a field “because they were bored.”
Directed by Nora Fingscheidt, The Outrun also stars Stephen Dillane, Saskia Reevesand Paapa Essiedu. According to The Outrun‘s synopsis: “After living life on the edge in London, Rona attempts to come to terms with her troubled past. She returns to the wild beauty of Scotland’s Orkney Islands — where she grew up — hoping to heal.”
The Outrun arrives in theaters on Oct. 4.
