Saoirse Ronan “grieved” not being able to star in The Hobbit and wants to make more blockbusters

Saoirse Ronan recalls turning down a role in The Hobbit – and says she’s still keen to do more blockbusters, despite her track record for period dramas and independent films. 

“I was supposed to be an Elf,” Ronan tells Total Film in our new issue out on Thursday, August 15, which features Beetlejuice Beetlejuice on the cover. “But then they rewrote the role, anyway. She was supposed to be a bit younger. It was a choice between Hanna or The Hobbit. And I chose Hanna… At the time, the idea of being able to go to New Zealand for a year-and-a-half was a dream come true. But there were projects coming in that, as an actor, were so interesting, and that I felt like I couldn’t really pass up. But for a long time, I was grieving the fact that I didn’t get to do it.”