“She doesn’t follow the pack. She’s very driven — she has a strong sense of self.” Saoirse Ronan is talking about Lady Bird, the character she plays in the film of the same name — but she might as well be talking about herself. She may be just 23, but she’s already smashed her way through several huge Hollywood movies. It’s seen her win her third Oscar nomination, the first having come when she was just 13 for “Atonement.” She’s already won the Golden Globe for best actress for the role. Since then she’s had major and lead roles in “Brooklyn,” “The Grand Budapest Hotel,” “The Host,” “How I Live Now,” “Hanna” and “The Lovely Bones.” “Lady Bird,” Greta Gerwig’s directorial debut, has been praised for its realistic but affectionate look at the life of a teenager on the verge of leaving home and her relationship with her mother — and it’s also up for best film. What attracted you to the role of Lady Bird? Lady Bird is very much her own person. She doesn’t follow the pack. She’s very driven, she has a very strong sense of self. One of the things that’s unusual for female leads, especially in a film about a teenager, is that she believes in herself, you know? Even if she doesn’t know what she wants to be or what it is she wants to say, she knows she’s going to do something. She’s very committed to being herself. The film is made up of these little moments between a family and friends and within relationships. That’s just what the end of childhood is like. It’s gone before you can fully grasp what it was that happened. How was that similar, or not, to what it was like being a teenager for you? The insecurity she had and the hope she had — that feeling of needing to leave home in order to find yourself — was something I could really identify with and really relate to. And the need for a strong friendship to anchor you. The way the mother-daughter relationship is portrayed is really realistic. How did you approach it? You’re watching two people that really love each other. There is a lot they share which is lovely and fun and it’s sort of being overwhelmed by the mother’s fear of change and the kid’s desperation to get out and have something new. They’re just missing each other, just by an inch. It only takes time and life and experience and moving away to understand the other one. More so for the kid, I think. How did you find out about your Oscar nomination? I was at my friend’s house and she had been secretly looking at the nominations online. I had forgotten they were coming out. Eventually she pulled a load of confetti canons out of a tote bag and just went, ‘pow!’ and exploded them. Her man ran in with balloons and more confetti — and then they told me. I was so, so happy. | 