Brie vs. Saoirse: Will Oscar actress race skew young?
In a year of stellar performances, the spotlight is hitting two young actresses cresting toward possible Oscar nominations:Room's Brie Larson, 26, and Brooklyn's Saoirse Ronan, 21. Both built careers in Hollywood from an early age, and now their names could be read aloud with Cate Blanchett's on nominations morning. Paste BN maps out what you should know about them going into awards season.
SAOIRSE RONAN ('Brooklyn')
Plot: Brooklyn, which launched at Sundance Film Festival and is based on Colm Tóibín's 2009 best seller, is a throwback romance told from the perspective of Eilis Lacey (Ronan), a young Irish woman navigating the life of a struggling immigrant in 1950s Brooklyn. A charming young Italian-American plumber (Emory Cohen) rescues her from the depths of homesickness, but when Eilis is called back to Ireland, she is torn between two loves.
You've seen her before, but where? Talk about shedding the "child actress" label gracefully. You know Ronan as the 13-year-old Oscar nominee (for supporting actress) from Atonement, the girl raised to be a human soldier in Hanna and Susie Salmon in The Lovely Bones. More recently, Ronan played the lovely, iron-willed Agatha in The Grand Budapest Hotel.
In her words: "To play someone whose situation was so close to mine was really terrifying," says Ronan, who moved from Ireland to London just prior to shooting the film. She's come far since her first Oscar nomination. "Of course, when I was a kid with Atonement, that was amazing, but I didn't know any different," she told Paste BN. She calls her career a "learning curve" since. "I've certainly been on both sides of the buzz and hype that comes with certain films, where it does work in your favor and sometimes it doesn't."
Official praise: Critics are falling hard for Brooklyn. The Hollywood Reporter says the love story "provides the feeling of being lifted into a different world altogether." Adds Variety: "The former child star seems to have perfected an understated technique as emotionally devastating to audiences as icebergs are to transatlantic ocean liners."
As for Oscar: "It's at the top of the list for me as a best picture contender," Fandango awards chief Dave Karger says. "Brooklyn has an old-fashioned feel to it, but it's also a very exciting movie. It tugs at the heartstrings, but not in a clichéd way."
What's next: Ronan stars in the upcoming movie adaptation of Anton Chekhov's The Seagull (opposite Annette Bening and Elisabeth Moss) and will make her Broadway debut this winter in Arthur Miller's The Crucible.
BRIE LARSON ('Room')
Plot: Larson tackles one of the darkest stories in this year's Oscar race playing Joy, who has spent seven years locked in a violent man's shed. Rape led to the birth of a son, Jack (Jacob Tremblay), who calls her Ma, and Room begins its story in the surprisingly sweet environment that Joy has created for her 5-year-old in their dismal surroundings.
You've seen her before, but where? Larson has been acting since she was 9, but finally had critics' full attention in her 2013 breakout Short Term 12, playing a supervisor in a foster care facility. She's also starred in projects like United States of Tara and The Spectacular Now, and played Amy Schumer's sister in Trainwreck. "Short Term 12 was a very big turning point for me, just in kind of opening doors to more opportunity and getting more control," she told Paste BN.
In her words: "I just had to break her down into little pieces," says Larson, who spent six months psychologically preparing for Room. She talked with a trauma specialist and a nutritionist "about the effects of a lack of vitamin D, poor nutrition, not having a toothbrush, those types of things. I just spent a lot of time researching it."
What the critics are saying: "All you need to know is that the performances of Larson and Tremblay will blow you away," says Rolling Stone, calling Room a small movie with "enormous" impact. The Wrap terms Larson's role "an exciting, tour-de-force performance by an actress who announces herself as one of the best of her generation," and the Los Angeles Times calls Larson's work "as scaldingly emotional a performance as anyone could wish for."
As for Oscar: Karger is bullish on Room, based on the novel and adapted by author Emma Donoghue for the screen — especially when it comes to a best actress nomination. Room "could become the Whiplash of this year and really take off over the next couple of months as more and more people see it and talk about it," he says.
What's next: Larson stars with Steve Carell in Battle of the Sexes, the gang tale Free Fire and Bollywood musical Basmati Blues (all 2016), plus Kong: Skull Island, the King Kong origin story (expected in 2017).
Contributing: Patrick Ryan
