The Outrun: Saoirse Ronan on learning lambing for new film

Saoirse Ronan likes to immerse herself in any role.

But the star of Lady Bird, Little Women and Mary Queen of Scots had to learn a new skill as Rona, the main character in The Outrun.

Based on Amy Liptrot’s award winning memoir, it’s about a young woman returning to her home in Orkney to deal with her past, and her addictions.

She helps her father with his farm on the strip of land known as The Outrun, turning her hand to everything from feeding the animals, to lambing – so four times Oscar nominated Saoirse learned to do the same.

“Oh I was lambing,” she told BBC Scotland News. “I don’t think you can fake that as you’ll see from the film.”

She observed local farmers and tried to remember what she saw and copied it.

“We had Kyle, this very young farmer, who was about 23 and overseeing three different farms on the Orkney mainland. He coached me off-camera.”

Then she got the call to do it for real.

“When you pull a lamb out at first, they look like they’re dead,” she says.

“They are pretty lifeless and the first time you do it you are worried you will hurt them, but you do have to be quite rough.

“After I got the first one out of the way I felt a bit more confident but to have to keep that mask of confidence over my face while inside I was completely terrified was probably one of the biggest acting challenges I’ve ever faced.”

The book, which was written in 2016, was first given to Saoirse by her husband – Scots actor Jack Lowden.

She said: “We were in lockdown, we were reading three books a week and he had been aware of the book from a few years before because he had spent a bit of time in the Orkney Islands with his friend.

“He had originally gone up there to do research on John Rae the explorer who is from Orkney so that’s how he discovered the book.

“He handed it to me when he had finished it and said ‘This is the next role that you need to play.”

She devoured the book and agreed.

“I think as much as I was interested in the topic and the world that we were, I could also relate to it for many different reasons.

“It was how Amy chose to write about the place. It was the poetic beautiful prose she chose. It was something that is so relatable and every day for so many people and she turned it into something other-worldly.”

Both she and Jack are producers on the film, and in 2022, they joined director Nora Fingscheidt and co-writer Amy Liptrott in Orkney to begin filming.

They were all keen to capture the elements, which are as much a part of the film as the cast, but the unpredictable Orcadian weather proved tricky.

“There were points on Papa Westray when we had to use a wind machine because it was too calm and sunny,” says Saoirse.

“We definitely had to adapt the shooting schedule to nature,” adds Nora.

“We went back four times in all. When lambs were being born in April, when the birds were nesting in June, and then the main shoot was in September when the seals were there.

“Then we were back with a tiny unit to get some snow in winter, but it was worth it.”

They were supported by local people, including those who knew Amy and her family, and many had cameos in the film.

Dave Gray, the former BBC journalist who died earlier this year, is the voice you hear on the radio news.

Amy herself is one of the locals holding things they’ve found washed up on the beach, and she’s one of the wild swimmers, who eventually persuade Rona to join them. Saoirse didn’t take much persuading.

“That’s something I love to do – I’ve swam in cold water since I was a kid in Ireland. It’s kind of my safe space.”

Although some of the community came to the premiere at the Edinburgh International Film Festival, the hope is to screen the film in Orkney next month around the cinema release.

Nora says they owe them a lot.

“We got support in front of the camera with people acting for the first time in their lives, and people behind the camera. People helped us build things, organise things, feed us and some let us into their houses, and I think we doubled the population of the island.”

And Saoirse says she’s not the only one who immersed herself in the experience.

“Everyone got involved, in front of the camera and behind the camera, in what the lead character was experiencing.

“So every time we would go out on a boat, or film the seals and I would sing to them, everyone would get involved.

“We’d all wild swim together, we all lived together. It was an incredibly immersive experience.”