VANITYFAIR.COM: Lou Reed may not have written the Velvet Underground song “Pale Blue Eyes” picturing Saoirse Ronan (How could he? She wasn’t born yet), but every close-up of this Irish American actress wafts its lyrics toward us. Especially in Brooklyn, adapted from Colm Tóibín’s novel by fellow novelist Nick Hornby, where Ronan’s uplifted glances, snowdrop complexion, and demure poise as Eilis Lacey, an immigrant trying to find her place in the raucous melting pot of New York, achieve the wistful beauty of a ballad and won Ronan an Oscar nomination for best actress. An inspiration figure, Ronan’s Lacey is the Statue of Liberty’s kid sister, back when the American Dream still had a fresh dew. Heartbreak looms in so many of the films Ronan luminates, from Atonement to The Lovely Bones, but she is no maid of constant sorrow on-screen. Twice she has played a teenage assassin, in Violet & Daisy and Hanna, and she took part in the rococo caperings of Wes Anderson’s The Grand Budapest Hotel. In a bit of dream casting, Ronan plays Nina in the upcoming film of Chekhov’s The Seagull, co-starring Corey Stoll, Annette Bening, and Elisabeth Moss, among others; wake us when it arrives.

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Magazine Scans > 2016 > Vanity Fair Hollywood Issue, February
Photoshoots > 2016 > Session 05 (Annie Leibovitz for Vanity Fair)