On Chesil Beach author Ian McEwan says Saoirse Ronan is a 'writer's gift'
Ian McEwan has been singing Saoirse Ronan's praises of late, describing her as a 'writer's gift' in an interview.
The 24-year old three-time Oscar nominated actress earned her first nom for her role in the big screen adaptation of his novel Atonement.
Now she's starring in another of his adaptations, On Chesil Beach, about two young lovers whose worlds come crashing down around them after a disastrous attempt at intimacy on their wedding night in the summer of 1962.
Asked what is so special about Saoirse in an interview with the Telegraph, the author described her as a 'writer's gift'.
“The reason I’m a novelist, not a movie director, is I like the representation of consciousness and its fine detail, and I miss that in cinema. But she really does somehow project the inner life, in silences, in gestures, in mode of delivery of a line. She’s a writer’s gift in that respect.” he said.
Her character performs in a string quartet in the film and McEwan praised Saoirse's efforts to film those scenes.
“Saoirse painfully, wonderfully, learnt the bowing, and we got a young violinist whose hands more or less matched hers to crouch behind her and loop her arm round on to the fret, and actually it was a marvellous moment watching the rushes between each take, these two young women falling into each other’s arms with laughter," he said.
"These technical challenges in movie-making provide a fascination for me that writing a novel can’t.”
On Chesil Beach is released on May 25 in Ireland.