Saoirse Ronan covers the April issue of Flaunt Mag. I’m sort of in love with Saoirse these days, probably because I’m still enchanted by her performance in Brooklyn. It was such a small, perfect little gem of a movie and I’ll fight anyone who says otherwise! Saoirse is currently in previews for another Broadway run of The Crucible. The show doesn’t officially open until April 7th, but people are already pretty pleased that Saoirse would come to New York to do a Broadway show at this point in her career. She plays Abigail Williams, and she’s joined by Ben Whishaw (as John Proctor), Sophie Okonedo (as Elizabeth Proctor), and Ciaran Hinds. As for this Flaunt interview, she ends up talking a lot about religion and being raised Catholic. As it turns out, she’s never confessed. Which I thought was a big part of being Catholic? Don’t ask me, I was raised by a Protestant and a Hindu.
She went to mass every Sunday: “As a Catholic you grow up believing that there’s an answer for everything, and a reason for everything.”
Her first Communion & her Confirmation: “I was six years old, and I had nothing to confess. I remember all of us kids were like ‘what are we going to say? Do we make something up like, we cheated on our homework or in an exam?’ Even as a kid, I didn’t feel like it was right for us to make up something just for the sake of it. So I said to my mum and dad, ‘I’m not doing it.’ I said no. So I’ve never confessed.”
Whether Ireland is really “calm, charming, and civilised”: “Calm and civilised? Maybe. We are definitely very fun. And we’re honest. And yes, maybe we are a little bit charming.”
Her next film is On Chesil Beach: “On Chesil Beach was something I had wanted to do for years but I wasn’t the right age until recently. I haven’t seen Ian in years! That was another draw for me to the project, we all shared a very special experience when we made Atonement and Ian was so supportive and relaxed about it all. Getting to work on another adaptation of his work is so exciting because I’m a huge fan but also because I just love Ian as a person.”
I know some people just love everything about Ian McEwan (author of On Chesil Beach, Atonement, etc), but I think his books are SO overrated. I read On Chesil Beach several years ago, and I loathed it. Is it somewhat cinematic? Sure. I can see why people would think that it would translate well into a movie. But the book was awful and the story is cheesy and silly. I also f—king hated Saturday too. And Atonement.
As for Saoirse not going to confession… canon law says that children must confess before their first communion, although some parishes let it slide. What I find odd is that although Saoirse might not have been feeling confessional as a child, surely she’s sinned since then, and thus would have true sins to confess? But she makes it sound like she’s never been into it. Many modern “cafeteria Catholics” pick and choose what they like from Catholicism these days, so perhaps Saoirse’s choice isn’t that odd.
Photos courtesy of Flaunt.
Yes on Ian’s work being overrated! I mean, Atonement was so boring, and I couldn’t see any chemistry between Keira and James. I think it boils down to the story…
I thought I was the only one not liking the movie or the book.
I really loved Atonement 😉
I thought Keira and James had lots of chemistry and Saoirse had a really strong character and could deliver very well. I thought it was a deep film.
Me too…I loved the book and the movie. I thought everybody was well casted.
I thought I was alone in this. Absolutely hate Ian’s work, the stuff I’ve read at least. I thought the movie was actually better than the book but I’m biased because I love James, Keira and Saoirse.
Solar is worth reading though.
I didn’t like it either. I didn’t like when the little sister lied about her boyfriend killing the girl and changing his life forever. I hate it and will never watch it again (unless someone torture’s me and makes me watch it).
I was just coming here to say Solar was the worst by far. Guess we agree to disagree
Brooklyn was a wonderful little movie.
That sounds like a confession… 😁
I know this sounds creepy but I just really like her face.. I find it very captivating, especially in these pictures.
Her face is so ethereal and pretty. She looks like an anime character. Im obsessed with it too.
Josefina: we can be creeps together then 👀
her face is gorgeous. I won’t admit how long I just stared at that photo with the glittery squares around her eyes. captivating is a great description.
Wonder if she gets the “Catholic guilt” from not going like in 30 Rock.
What is Catholic guilt? I hear it in movies all the time, but I’ve never heard it in real life, and I’m from a super duper Catholic country.
Essentially, an inner, hobgobliny-type voice that lapsed or a-la-carte Catholics, despite their best efforts to ignore it, are still, in weak (sinful!) moments, plagued by.
It is excessive guilt and Catholics are taught to feel guilty about everything (drives, emotions, thoughts, etc).
I think Catholic guilt is characterised by feeling guilty for things that aren’t a sin. Or even a teeny weeny bit wrong.
I was raised by nuns and was never taught to feel excessive guilt.
Lol, has anyone watched the Jibber Jabber with Conan and Jack White? I just watched it yesterday, and they talked extensively about Catholic guilt…
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AJgY9FtDLbs
I didn’t know you could have a first communion if you didn’t confess. Besides, the “sins” we confessed as kids were I fought with my sister, I lied to my parents, etc. Nothing major.
I used to make up “sins” when I was little and had to go to confession.
Oh the irony!
I made up sins all the time for confession as well, but my last would always be bless me father for I have lied. Good old Catholic Ireland.
I was just going to hop on here to say the same thing!! I hated confession so much as a kid. I wasn’t doing anything wrong! They teach you there is always SOMETHING you need to confess though. (Whoever it was above asking about Catholic guilt, there it is.) I, too, always said I fought with my siblings.
My father is protestant and HE never had to confess, so I always thought it was bunk anyway. Even as a kid, I remember asking my parents, “If I can pray to God and be heard, why do I have to go through the priest about this?” I haven’t gone in my adult life, but I don’t really do church much either.
True, you HAVE to do (in order) baptism, confession, communion, confirmation – you can;t pick and choose which, and you have to do them in that order. So probably she had to do the “first confession” as we call it, and then she simply avoided confessing ever since.
We all recycled the same sins “i behaved badly with my parents/siblings/teacher”, “said bad words” and so on.
Being Italian from a very religious family I had to get along with it until i was 16 and then I became an atheist, easy to decide, especially after you have priests coming for dinner at your house, getting drunk-ish and spilling out church members confession secrets…they are humans, do no trust them!
Really, In Germany (nearly) every catholic does the first communion before the first confession and the confession happens a couple of years later on a different occasion.
I guess we are are country full of sinners. 😉
Personally, I hated the cofession and I thought it was a really, really akward moment. I remember there was a lot of silence involved as a felt I had nothing no say to the priest.
I left church before the confirmation a couple of years later.
Having been born and raised in the catholic religion (baptized, confirmed, catholic all girl’s school…the works), I never understood the illogical concept of God needing a PR person to absolve you of your sins. It always seemed to me that confession was a tool to keep people scared and under control, snooping if you will. So yeah, I agree with her about not doing it. Completely.
Completely agree! It’s archaic.
Wasn’t the refusal of confession in protestantism at first a way of controlling people because there is no absolution, no temporarily release? I read a paper about it once, and it was expalined that way.
I had a bit of a cleptomanic phase as a kid and stole some pencils and some of these bread thingies (wafers?) when we had communion classes, but I didn’t dare confess it. So I felt extra bad and when the pastor told me to say this or that prayer, I said it ten times to make up for lying in confession…. Honestly, all I took away from church is a sense of guilt and paranoia.
It is a big deal in Catholicism. I was easieed by the most orthodox of orthodox Catholics. Something doesn’t add up. You start going to confession before first communion. You can’t be confirmed if you don’t go to confession unless she was from a seriously lax parish or something. But that doesn’t really jive with the church every Sunday thing. Either they’re Catholic in name only or there’s something wrong here.
You cannot pass communion and confirmation without confessing. Whatever it is… disrespecting your parents, etc… I call BS on her Irish a$s
I can believe it, to an extant. Maybe she didn’t want to confess, threw a wobbler, and the parish priest wasn’t bothered either way?
I find it odd too Ms M. First confession then first communion. But the days of the dreaded confessional boxes are gone for the most part, it’s a kind of internal communal confession and absolution in most cases now. But I really like Saoirse – her performance in Brooklyn was as good as Brie’s in Room, just a very different context.
In my community, we definitely did not have to confess before receiving First Communion. Wasn’t even an option. All Catholic children, myself included, received First Communion in Gr. 2 (7-8 yrs old), then first confession was done two years later in Gr. 4. This was across multiple parishes. Clearly, some churches must choose to ignore that part.
1. Brooklyn was amazing
2. Saoirse is amazing
3. i was raised catholic, only ‘confessed’ at communion and remember thinking the same thing ‘am I SUPPOSED to have something bad to confess to?’
I wish I could remember what I said to the priest…
I agree about Mc Ewan for most of his books but Solar. I think it is his best book.
She is lovely.
Solar is brilliant! Also really impressed by ‘The Children Act’, both of which, incidentally, would make far more interesting films than On Chesil Beach.
I have not read The Children Act. I will check it out. Thank you.
Religion is such a personal thing. She was obviously raised Catholic, but was a default Catholic, or Catholic by birth. I am Catholic by birth. I spent my life trying to be a good Catholic, then one magical day I realized that I didn’t agree with the doctrine, and had simply been going through the motions for decades to please my Irish Catholic parents. Not dissing them in any way, as my parents loved their Catholic faith and lived it (unlike other family members who knelt in Mass on Sunday, and then spent the rest of their week being evil pricks). Anyway, what I am saying is that if Ms. Ronan decided never to confess, it is her business. Good on her for taking a stand at a young age. Her parents obviously backed her on her decision, since there is no other way that she would have been able to get out of going to confession (and making up sins in order to have something to confess). Trust me, I attended Catholic grade school and high school, and I know that it would be a tough sell to get out of going to confession unless the parents backed the decision.
There is not a chance in Hell that she got away without confession before her Communion and Confirmation – unless things have MASSIVELY changed since the 80’s.
I am a lifelong Catholic, first communion in the 80s (in Germany) and I never confessed either (and don’t intend to ever). We had a very progressive, open-minded priest and he let us choose if we wanted to or not.
Friends of mine got away with not confessing as well. They also never served as altar boys/girls. Honestly, I always had the impression they were just happy to have SOME young people at their church.
Loved Brooklyn and love Saoirse!!! She’s goals.
I loved her in Brooklyn. Her skin is amazing! She is so underrated.
She’d have no choice where I grew up – everyone has to confess before their first Communion (at age 9) and at 15, before the Confirmation, I had to go to confession every month for a year, at a specific date and the very mean priest had to sign in my notebook that I did. If I hadn’t confessed even once during that time, not only wouldn’t I be allowed to participate in the ceremony (which later allows one to marry, be a godparent or baptize their kid), but also wouldn’t be promoted to the next class as religion is a normal school subject like maths. If someone is not a Catholic, their parents have to sign special documents before the school-year starts, not during. I was never a most devoted Christian and I disagreed with many aspects of the catholic doctrine, but that sealed the deal and I started identifying as atheist the moment after my Confirmation and never confessed or even willingly went to church since then. I don’t think it works that way – that you can stop confessing and going to church and still be a Catholic. One can believe in God and not be a part of any religion, yes, but the Catholic Church is an organization with a very strict set of rules and attending Masses and confessing and then receiving a Communion are by far one of the most crucial ones.
I agree about McEwans’ books – he’s writing style is exhausting and not even in an ambitious, artistic way.
I was raised Catholic, in Ireland, same as Saoirse and I had to go to my first confession even though I didn’t want to. I didn’t believe in telling all my secrets to a man I didn’t know! To this day I am a crazy private person! Anyway, in the event, I went in and just made shit up – like most of us kids did, and since then I have never been to confession. I don’t practice the faith anymore – I was born into it and never bought into it, even as a kid.
As for Atonement – I really liked the movie, but couldn’t get into the book. So boring!
Sorry to hijack the thread, but I am feeling SUPER Irish and proud after the RTE Centenary thing on Monday night. Anybody else seen it? I actually teared up at the Proclamation, and when Imelda May sang. Loved “Grace” as well.
Loved it as well – but then, my PhD. Is in irish political history, and I wrote my thesis on the 1966 and 2006 Easter Rising commemoration. It’s hard for me to ignore the politics of it all, but the violinist performing Proclamation was just wonderful.
Haha yep it’s literally the biggest part… all sins can be forgiven if you repent and confess. Anything bad you do at all, as long as you proclaim what you did to a priest, take the punishment (hail mary’s, fasting, whatever) and are truly sorry for what you did.
I didn’t think you could get your first communion or go through confirmation (taking the name of a saint) without confession…. how odd!
I too as a child was a bit confused about confession but every kid has done something naughty, whether it is a sin or not. I think I said my room was messy sometimes (or something) – which does I suppose fit in to ‘honour thy mother and father’!!
I haven’t been to confession since I was kid (and making up petty sins so I’d have something to say) but I can understand why it could be a good thing for adults to do. (Going to confession as a child is basically supposed to get you into the habit of doing it.)
Everybody screws up and makes mistakes, and if you’ve got something you feel guilty about and are having a hard time getting past, a good priest is supposed to be able to give you wise counsel and make you feel better (and give you advice on how to avoid screwing up in that particular way again). And of course assure you that God still loves you and forgives you.
It’s the same as the therapy concept of not turning your guilt inward and talking to someone about it instead.
And if you just generally are trying to be a good person, taking the time to sit down and examine your conscience and think about what you could be doing better is a good way of doing it.
But it does depend on the priest. You need somebody who respects you and treats you like an adult and is going to let you talk about what you want to talk about and not, like, conduct an old-school interrogation on you about whether you skip mass and have dirty thoughts.
I was born into a Roman Apostolic Catholic family – was baptized at 3 months old, First Communion at 7 (I told the priest I had nothing to confess except that I thought this was pointless and he commanded me to pray 10 Holy Fathers – which I never did) and then – nothing. My parents actually let me choose and I chose not to have a Confirmation nor to got to mass etc. I’m the only Atheist in my family but hardly anyone goes to mass anymore. I believe Catholicism is changing and that’s awesome.
Cradle Catholic….firmly against confession and do not partake. Good for her.
I can see her point about confession, and depending upon the priest/parish she received the other sacraments from, it’s possible she skated and didn’t have to go to confession.
The parish I was brought up in, there were 3 separate “rites of passage” sacraments: communion, penance and confirmation. From what I remember the first two were when I was young enough that that didn’t really think them through, but confirmation when I was 16-17, did require a lot of thought. And yes, confession first.
I think, technically, in the Catholic Church you are suppose to confess at least once a year, and anytime you feel you’ve committed a serious sin before you receive Communion.
But I can see as an individual Catholic someone would not feel the need. It’s not so much being a “cafeteria Catholic” as some would say, it’s just paying attention during Mass. Right before Communion, there’s a part that says “Lord, I know I’m not worthy to receive you, but only say the word and I shall be healed”. So if someone attending Mass truly felt sorry and asked for forgiveness at that point, who is anyone to deny them the Eucharist just because they hadn’t sat with a priest for 10 minutes talking about what they’d done?
And then there is the issue of the abuse scandal in the Church. Some of the priests from the parish I was raised in, who heard confessions from me and my friends as children, where the same ones who later revealed to have been abusers (some shuttled from parish to parish). And while the idea is that the priest can hear confession and grant absolution as a representative of God, as a friend of mine likes to say on the subject “You can’t wash your face with a dirty washcloth”
So if she considers herself a Catholic but has not felt the need to formally “go to Confession” I don’t have any problem with that.
PS – Haven’t seen Brooklyn yet, though I hope to see it soon, but she was very good in Atonement.
I loved her before she “fixed” her nose. Lovely girl though, and I adored her performance in Brooklyn. colm toibin beats ian McEwan every time 🙂
The one thing I miss about being Catholic is confession. I always loved the feeling of unburdening myself and always felt so light and “clean” afterward. Sometimes I think about just going to confession for that reason alone. I might.