Saoirse Ronan: Saved By The Bell was best lesson for new film Lady Bird

The cult teen show helped her to prepare for playing a high-school student
Inspiration: Actress Saoirse Ronan
Kevin Winter/Getty
Miranda Bryant10 January 2018
The Weekender

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Actress Saoirse Ronan says her expert knowledge of Saved By The Bell helped her prepare for her Golden Globe-winning performance as a high school student in Lady Bird.

The Irish-American star attended a Catholic school in Ireland and was also educated at home. She said the Nineties teen comedy television series taught her about aspects of American high school life she might not have otherwise known about.

Ronan, 23, said: “It wasn’t daunting [preparing for the role] because I had grown up watching Saved By The Bell, Sabrina The Teenage Witch and That’s So Raven.”

During a talk about the film in New York last week, she added: “Even when it comes to the culture, prom and the popular kids, that doesn’t really exist as much back at home.

“But even though I joke about it, genuinely I think Saved By The Bell helped an awful lot. Well — there’s a romanticism to it.”

The show followed the lives of a group of students at Bayside High School in California. Lady Bird, directed and written by Greta Gerwig, is also set in California, in the early 2000s. It picked up two awards at the Golden Globes, including best actress in a comedy or musical for Ronan, and has been nominated for three Baftas.

Award winning: Saoirse Ronan in Ladybird, for which she won a Golden Globe

Ronan attended the New York Times talk with Gerwig, 34, and said the filmmaker had inspired her to want to direct.

She told Gerwig: “I’ve always wanted to ‘try my hand’ at directing but only honestly since I’ve watched you do all of this and talk about the movie you’ve made … It really has changed my mindset and my perspective on what I can do and what I can succeed in.”

Ronan, who had her film breakthrough in Atonement at 13, said she was always protected on set by her parents but the Hollywood sexual harassment scandal had made her “rethink” some experiences. She added: “It’s made me go back and kind of go, ‘Oh no that shouldn’t have happened’ and ‘When that producer told you to keep quiet about that thing that’s not OK and that’s inappropriate’.”

Golden Globe Awards 2018 - In pictures

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