During the shooting OvertakingSaoirse Ronan has given birth to lambs, swum with seals and interacted with her fair share of flora and fauna.
Rona, a four-time Oscar nominee, plays a young woman who leaves London and returns to her small hometown in Scotland’s Orkney Islands as she charts her path to recovery while exploring all the harsh realities and natural wonders of a small windswept island. The Scottish coast has to offer.
The film directed by German director Nora Fingscheid (System crash) and based on Amy Liptrott’s novel of the same name, will be screened after its premiere at Sundance in Berlin, where it received rave reviews (THRof David Rooney observed that Ronan “goes through physical and emotional hardships”). Before a screening of the film in Berlin, Ronan spoke THR Why she partnered with Liptrott’s book, the benefits of making the project, and how the unique culture of the Orkney Islands influenced the film.
How did you discover Amy Liptrot’s book?
It was Jack Lowden, also a producer, who introduced him to me. He is a very proud Scotsman and spent some time in the Orkney Islands. Whenever he goes to a new place, he tries to read a book by an author from that place if possible. So he was already in love Overtaking, and while we were in lockdown—going through books left, right, and center because we had all the time in the world—he recommended I read it. “This is the next role you should play,” he said. » So of course, the usual actor, I was champing at the bit. I think almost everyone has their own relationship with addiction, whether it’s something you’ve experienced yourself or watched a loved one go through. It is a disease that has affected all of us in one way or another, and I am no different. It is a disease that has shaped my life so dramatically, I have not experienced it myself, but I am a victim of what can come of it. I always wanted to understand it more, because it was something that caused so much pain. I finally felt like I was at a place where I wanted to dive to the other side, trying to understand it better.
When it comes to on-screen addiction stories, few follow young women. Did you think about this while developing the project?
This was one of the first things we noticed. Not only was she going to follow a young woman in recovery, but she was also going to follow a person suffering from alcoholism where the torment, the heartbreak, the spiral is not just because of her relationship with a man or her partner. You could also take the addiction element out of it, and it would still be this very relatable story about a time in a woman’s life where she’s approaching her thirties and you have to examine your life in a way that you never have. done Before. This element of dependency adds to the journey we are already on as women at this point in our lives.
Does the fact that the book helps you build your performance?
We knew that the central performance would really be the beating heart of the film, because even in the book you really follow this person. Nora, when she read the book, really captured this elusive element of Amy’s psyche. She is really fascinated by specific topics and goes into great detail about the current in the ocean, the DNA of jellyfish or how ethanol affects the brain. Nora really wanted to incorporate it into the overall story of the film. From a producers point of view, we really wanted to capture the energy of Orkney. It’s on the coast of the continent, and it really feels like it’s all its own. If you’re Orcadian, you say you’re Orcadian, you don’t say you’re Scottish. We really fell in love with the mentality of the people living there, a very positive and can-do attitude, which is really admirable. But to combine that kind of mindset with mental illness and the emotional upheaval that someone can go through, Jack and I always thought that would be really interesting.
You filmed on location on the islands, correct?
We started in London, which was so intense because it was like the highest high and the lowest low that the character felt. We then moved to mainland Orkney to focus on relationships with parents and reintegration into the community. We end up at Papa Vestre, which is the island she ends up on. We gradually isolated ourselves more and more. That was the advantage of being a producer in this business: I was like, “Look, this is how I want to shoot. » I have been working with myself for 20 years. It is a tool: you know what you have to do in your work.
Courtesy of Studio Canal
How do you think living in Orkney influenced the film?
When we reached Papa Vestre’s house there was real satisfaction. It was the end of COVID – we had all come out of several lockdowns – so to reconnect with a small community, to be surrounded by friendly faces, we were grateful. All of this inspired the performance in a very organic way. We shot at (Emi’s) house, and we shot at her farm. We met his father, who still lives on the farm. When Stefan (Dylan) and I were shooting the scenes between Amy and her father, her father was there, so it was a surreal experience. I think that was very helpful in reminding the actors that this is a true story and it’s about real people.
I did two other films (during the pandemic). One of them was in Australia, and even when we were there we were very confined. It was a film that Paul Mescale and I made (Garth Davis’ 2023 sci-fi drama the enemy), and in fact we both got covid one after the other. We were in a very barren, dry desert, and there were basically just the two of us. What is interesting to do the enemy First, then do Overtaking This is the enemy It’s 100 years, 150 years in the future, where everything living, all organic matter will die. So I went from that environment to this film where I was putting sheep on the ground. It went from nothing to very much life in the space of a few months.
Was there a lot of infrastructure on the island?
It was the first film we shot in Orkney. In general, it is not a place that people know about, so all this infrastructure has been introduced on the island. In a small community, a lot of effort goes into keeping everyone really engaged and busy with something to do. So there were many amateur actors, especially many young people who were very fond of theatre. I’ve shot in small towns before, where there’s always that one person who’s a bit difficult or who makes your day of filming really difficult. We haven’t experienced an ounce of it. I hope it inspires them to keep doing more because there is just romance in this place. It is a true amalgamation of Celtic and Nordic cultures. This is essentially the land of the Vikings.
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