For many actors, it can take years of plugging away to get the breakout role they deserve and the recognition that their talents demand. And then, there’s a star like Saoirse Ronan. While awards bodies have always had a fondness for an ingenue, Ronan’s Oscar darling status is downright enviable, as the young Irish star has received four nominations from the Academy across her career, before even turning 30.
Even more impressively, all of those nominations have felt perfectly deserved. A child star who transitioned smoothly into adult acting after her breakout role in 2007’s “Atonement,” Ronan has quickly built up a reputation as one of the greatest performers of her generation. While the quality of the projects she’s chosen has fluctuated (remember “The Host?” No, we don’t really, either), overall the star has shown both great taste and an impressive commitment to every part she takes on.
In 2020, The New York Times ranked the star as the 10th greatest movie star of the 21st-century. What makes Ronan such a skilled performer is harder to pin down than you’d expect. She’s not particularly showy as an actor, never really undergoing the physical transformations awards bodies associate with major performances or taking on showy, explosive roles.
Her best roles are often very modest, young women who don’t go through anything particularly traumatic or unusual beyond the regular pains and sadness of growing up. What makes Ronan so good is her ability to melt .
