THE DRUMS interview

The Drums started in 2008 by childhood friends Jonny Pierce (vocals) and Jacob Graham 
(keyboards). By 2009, they had relocated to Brooklyn and found other band members. The  first album The Drums (2010) came out to critical acclaim. Many tours and TV appearances followed. The second album Portamento (2011) came out quickly, in the midst of tours, and a high profile in the UK. At the end of 2012, some members left the band. Pierce and Graham focused on solo work. Most of 2013 was a break for The Drums. In the fall 2014, they reunited and released their third full-length record Encyclopedia (2014). The new album contains some of their best songs including “Kiss Me Again” and “I Can’t Pretend”

Back on the tour circuit, The Drums soon played many festivals such as Beach Goth. 
In Summer 2015, they are playing Outside Lands and FYF Fest. They are bringing their 
unique brand of synth pop to the people. Recently there is a new remix, courtesy of 
TOKiMONSTA, by transforming Encyclopedia's “There Is Nothing Left.”

AL:  There was a break before the third album, Encyclopedia. What were you 
doing during that time?

Jonny: I’m a pretty frantic person and it’s hard for me to remember dates and times. My 
whole life is one big blur, but let me think for a minute. Oh yes! We purposely took a full 
year without writing any material for the band. We were so physically, mentally, and 
spiritually depleted after the Portamento album cycle. Too much touring, too much press, 
too many photo shoots, and saying yes to almost every opportunity. It was killing us. I 
mean, we lost two band members due to the constant ever-pressing schedule and I don’t 
think Jacob and I were too far away from calling it quits ourselves. I don’t think that even 
if we wanted to that we could have pulled off the glory of Encyclopedia had we chosen to 
jump straight into it coming off tour. We needed an off switch. I had just bought a small 
cabin on a lake in a very natural setting so I spent pretty much that entire year reconnecting 
with nature and also with myself. I also got married to a Dutchman against all odds!!        

AL: Was living in New York City an influence on the newest album?

Jonny: Living in New York influences everything whether you want it to or not, and 
whether you are aware of it or not. It’s such a powerful and complex place. Although I did 
end up moving to Los Angeles about half a year ago, I find New York much more nurturing to artists. There is a real spirit of artistic togetherness. A tangible community. New York kind of spit 
out its artists in the last few years, as well at least those of us who weren’t born rich. I 
would encourage anyone who is choosing between the two to try LA. I will always love 
New York more, because it taught me everything I know. It showed me the world is huge 
and everyone matters and it also showed me how small the world is and how nothing 
actually matters.

AL:  I was watching this documentary called Synth Britannia which was about British 
Synth bands in the 1980s. It’s was odd that many of the best synth bands, like Yaz and 
Soft Cell, were duos. It seems like a natural thing. What do think about synthesizers and 
duos? 

Jonny: Yeah. I think synths and drum machines do so much that you don’t need as many 
members. It’s also hard to find dudes who have the right balance of testosterone. Lots of 
guys I know just insist on playing the guitar because it makes them feel macho and they 
get quite territorial over it. They wouldn’t be caught dead playing a synth on stage. Takes a 
special breed who are fewer and farther between that allow themselves to become delicate. 
I’ve never liked the synth-duo thing so much, though. I like bands much more: if only for 
the gang-mentality. I miss having four band members. I love the feeling of family (probably because I never knew that as a child) and I don’t always get that with Jacob. He is such a loner, and 
I am too, but I am much more social and always want to be closer. He keeps me at bay. I 
think I’m too intense for him. He seems to want to have a more relaxed and chilled out 
life style, and me, I want to have a rich life full of extremes. I want to feel total despair and 
unfiltered bliss and everything in between - but pretty much all at the same time, all the 
time. I feel bad for my husband.

AL: I saw you play at Beach Goth last year. This summer you are playing Outside Lands 
and FYF Fest. Do you like playing these festivals?

Jonny: I love Beach Goth, but I hated how they had Pauly Shore kick us off stage after 
only playing 4 or 5 songs. We pulled a HUGE crowd and it was not our fault that we went 
on late. But we got bit in the ass and I thought it was a bit embarrassing being asked to
leave publicly. I would love to come back, but I can only do it if they honor the time limits. 
We are a band to be taken seriously. We work too hard. 

Overall, I used to really hate performing outdoors. Too many variables, but recently, we’ve 
had a good run and our crowds are only getting bigger and bigger and full of loyal fans. We 
used to have huge crowds, but there was a real empty feeling because half the people there 
were only there because we were the new buzz band. Now, those people are in line for the 
next new, buzzy thing (as lemmings do) and our crowds are still huge, but the connection 
is now real because we aren’t riding off hype anymore: we are riding off of a real 
connection to other weirdoes like us. At long last, a cement foundation.

AL: Since you took a year off and spent some time doing this record, were there some 
new influences, such as books and films, which affected the new record?

Jonny: I think my biggest influence on Encyclopedia was nature. I took a very long trip 
through the different wildernesses in America. Forest, deserts, huge lakes, mountaintops, 
waterfalls, elk, bison, etc and I was reminded how insignificant we all are. The record 
shows a real appreciation for this idea of being relatively unimportant in the great scheme 
of things. The album also has some real rebellious themes that were inspired by nature and 
evolution specifically. I’ve always had a hard time with authority. It’s like “ok sir, we were 
all once single cell organisms and it took us hundreds of millions of years to evolve into 
who we are now and you are going to tell me I can’t marry a man? Fuck off!” Nature 
worked way too hard to have these assholes telling any of us what to do or how to think. 
Everything is chance! It always has been and will always be! I mean these same people who 
say I can’t suck a dick will probably - in a billion years - evolve into new creatures that 
have a tongue where their dick is and a dick where their tongue is, or at least one can only 
hope. 

AL: What do you think of people taking pictures of you with their cell phones?

Jonny: I used to hate it but I’ve let loose about these types of things. My fans will wait in 
the freezing cold outside a venue or in intense heat so the least I can do is offer them a 
funny selfie moment. Our fans are so diehard that it’s hard to say no to them - ever. 

AL: What are some bands that you have enjoyed playing with?

Jonny: Beverly, Io Echo, Girls, DMA’s . 

AL: Do you collect old analog synths?

Jonny: I do! I always have! Jacob and I have been collecting since we were 12 and 13. 
We’ve seen a lot of really nice ones come and go. Jacob’s studio looks like something 
out of a science fiction movie, and well I sell off my synths more often than not because 
I like trying new things. I recently just parted ways with a Korg PS-3100. It was one of the 
first - if not the first polyphonic personal “mobile” synthesizer they developed. I bought it in 
Tokyo. I cried when I first played it. Music can be so intoxicating: if you’re in the right 
mind frame and in the right place at the right time. 

ANNA FRIEL interview

ANNA FRIEL interview
By alexander laurence


Anna Friel is a well-known British actress from Manchester. As a teenager
she acted in British TV programs such as Emmerdale and Brookside. Her lesbian
French kiss was one of the most memorable moments in soap opera history. A
year later, she appeared nude on TV in the film The Tribe. There was an
unforgettable ménage a trois with her and the actors Jonathan Rhys Meyers and
Jeremy Northam. She is definitely no stranger to controversy.

Anna Friel is very much an actress who is versatile. In 1998, she appeared
in the original Broadway staging of Closer, with Natasha Richardson. I asked
her about this very famous production. “When I did Closer on Broadway,”
she explained. “I had never done any stage in my life. I have just been back
in New York City a week ago, and the experience has come back to me. The
visit made me think about it. Natasha Richardson was the lead in that play, and
she has just passed away. She was a very elegant lady. She nurtured me and
took care of me. She used to take me up to her house on the weekends. I was
very scared when I first went onstage. She was a very warm and lovely woman.
She had the most powerful voice you have ever heard. She had a very
particular, rich, deep voice. She sounded great in a theater. Her death was very
tragic.”

Sometimes when a famous play is turned into a film, something is lost in
the translation. I wondered what Anna Friel thought of the role, which she
helped shape. She answered: “I didn’t know they were making a film. I loved
the part so much. I thought it was so much mine. Of course it wasn’t. It was
Patrick Marber’s. I couldn’t watch the film for two or three years. Now I
have and it’s a fair film. But the stage version is so much different. You
would have the experience of people marching out of the theater because they
reacted to the swearing, and all the references to fucking. They would storm
out.”

Some of her best-known films include The Land Girls (1998), Rogue Trader
(1999), A Midsummer Night’s Dream (1999), Timeline (2003), Bathory (2008), and
Me Without You (2001). Many of these were indie films and British
productions. They are much different from doing a film with Will Ferrell.

The Land Girls was one famous indie film where Anna Friel was more or less
introduced to the film world. I asked her about how she got that role: “I
did a lot of auditions. Sometimes they would call me up and offer me a part.
For The Land Girls, they were matching up three girls. They took myself,
Rachel Weisz, and Catherine McCormick, and put us into different groups for six
different auditions. They found the perfect three. That was a long time ago.
People mention that film a lot.”

One of her best films is Me Without You, with she co-starred with Michelle
Williams. It was about the close friendship of two British girls during the
punk rock era. I asked Anna Friel if she was a fan of the music in that
film. She said “The soundtrack to the film Me Without You is great. The director
of that film knew what would be on the soundtrack, so she played a lot of
the music on the set. The music would create a mood for that scene. I worked
with the music a lot on that film. The director was shocked that I didn’t
know who Mick Jones was. I had to listen to The Clash and learn about all
these references in the movie.”

Recently she was starring in Pushing Daisies as Charlotte “Chuck” Charles.
She was nominated for a Golden Globe in 2008. This show was one of the most
amazing shows recently on TV, but was thwarted by production problems. “I
did Pushing Daisies over a period of two years. We made twenty-two episodes.
The strike happened, so I got lucky and I went off and did Land of The Lost
with Will Ferrell. The show was definitely affected by the strike, but I
received my first Golden Globe nomination, and the show itself received twenty
different nominations. It was a very nice high-class show.”

It always seemed like Pushing Daisies was too smart for its audience. I
asked her if maybe this show was too ambitious? “It was a peculiar show and
appealed to a certain taste” she said. “It had some of the best people
involved. Barry Sonnenfeld directed one of the pilots. It was a visual
feast. There
was a lot of visual information in a short space of time.”

It appears that Anna Friel is very versatile, and very comfortable working
in any medium. I asked her if she preferred one sort of acting to another.
She told me: “As an actress you should mix it all up as best you can. You
should choose the best characters that are offered. It could be in TV,
theater, or movies. This year I am doing two different movies, and then some
theater. You should do whatever is going to develop you as an actress,
and create
longevity. Those mediums appeal to different groups of people. As an
actress you want to appeal to many different groups of people as possible. Some
people love theater and some hate it. They would rather turn on the TV or
watch a movie.”

This summer she stars in Land of the Lost with Will Ferrell and Danny
McBride. This film is anticipated to be one of the big movies of the
summer. Land
of The Lost is a movie that was supposed to be made for a long time. Many
people might not be familiar with the original show. Anna said: “Land of The
Lost was a TV series from the 1970s. They found a wormhole and went back in
time. There are these Sleestacks, which are big lizards guys with big eyes.
It stars Will Ferrell, Danny McBride, and myself. Danny McBride was in
Pineapple Express and Tropical Thunder. He’s a brilliant actor.”

Since she was the only woman with a mostly male cast and crew, I asked her
if she felt comfortable? “It was a new experience for me being the only
woman around. I was drinking all these organic drinks and they gave me gas. We
were doing a scene and I farted on set. It was uncomfortable for a few days.
Then Will Ferrell told me he was building up some gas, and he had one
coming. He farted for more than ten seconds, and it was a gentlemanly
thing to do.
After that everything was fine.”

Anna Friel has a daughter with actor David Thewlis. She has been living in
Los Angeles and London for the past few years. She has been involved with
many charities, including Burma Campaign UK, which helps the country of Burma.

I asked her about living in two places. She said “I live in both in England
and Los Angeles. I was here for two years, while I was doing Pushing
Daisies. I left for London, for three months, right before Christmas.
I have just
got back. I will be here until June, when I start up another movie in June.
I used to live in London, but now I live in Windsor, which is forty minutes
out. London is too mad and busy.”

She has two cats that she has brought with her. “They have been tearing up
all the furniture.”

How is Anna Friel adjusting to the bi-coastal life? “I like cooking. I try
to make a lot of salads. Salads are really good in America. I am trying to
copy some of the recipes. I drink weird drinks every morning. One is called
Breakfast Liquid Lunch. I like green drinks with dandelion leaves. I go to
the Hollywood Bowl a lot. I have seen Kings of Leon and Van Morrison. Once you
have been to the Hollywood Bowl, you don’t want to go anywhere else. This
year I am going to the Benicassim Festival. Oasis is playing this year. I
like the smaller festivals. Some of the big festivals you can get lost.”

It was a very warm, summery day in March when I conducted this interview. I
was lucky enough to meet Anna Friel in the Hollywood Hills, at Canadian
singer Michael Bublé’s house. She lives nearby, and came there to do a photo
session. We chatted in a closet while the makeup and hair people were getting
her ready. Soon she would be transformed in an Alexander McQueen dress. Anna
Friel is very striking and energetic. Recently, FHM magazine has chosen her
number nine in their “100 Sexiest Women In The World” list.

I knew she was a music fan. She had attended the War Child concerts in
London. I asked her about how she got into music. She said: “Most of my friends
are musicians as opposed to actors. I go to loads of gigs. At my sixteenth
birthday I met Vince Powell. He used to own Glastonbury, Reading, and
Phoenix. I am used to going to all the festivals every year. I was
treated nicely
and I had an artist pass. Once Paul Weller came up to me, tapped me on the
shoulder, and asked me to introduce him onstage. I didn’t know who he was and
I said sorry, I am eating my dinner. And then my friends took me aside and
explained to me that this was Paul Weller and it’s a big thing to be asked to
do. I guess that I wasn’t up on all the bands. I went backstage and saw
that there were thirty-thousand people there.”

Being from Manchester, I wonder how close was she to that music scene. “I
knew a lot of Oasis when I was growing up. I was too young for the Hacienda.
I wished that I had a chance to go there. I lived about twenty minutes
outside the city. I went to loads of Oasis gigs when I was younger. I
spent a lot
of time with them. Alan McGee from Creation Records had asked me to do a
music video. Alan McGee used to give me a bunch of CDs and tell me to open my
music library.”

Simon Cowell tried to sign Anna Friel when she was still a teenager. I
asked her about the association with the man from American Idol: “I sang a lot
when I was a kid. I come from and Irish family and it’s all very musical. If
you didn’t play an instrument you had to use your voice. When I was on a TV
show, and became a household name, the logical step is to do a pop record. I
figured that if I did that, I would never be taken seriously as an actress,
which is my first love. So I pursued the acting, left singing as something
I would do later. I saw Simon Cowell years later and he told me that I did a
smart thing by focusing on the acting. I will be singing on the stage in
the Fall. It will be in a stage production of Breakfast At Tiffany’s. It’s
not a musical.”

Being from Manchester, I wondered how close was (Anna Friel) to that music scene. “I
knew a lot of Oasis when I was growing up. I was too young for the Hacienda.
I wished that I had a chance to go there. I lived about twenty minutes
outside the city. I went to loads of Oasis gigs when I was younger. I spent a lot
of time with them. Alan McGee from Creation Records had asked me to do a
music video. Alan McGee used to give me a bunch of CDs and tell me to open my
music library.”

Read the whole Anna Friel interview, coming out in Zoo Magazine (June 2009).

JONATHAN JEREMIAH INTERVIEW

North London Troubadour

JONATHAN JEREMIAH INTERVIEW

By Alexander Laurence

Jonathan Jeremiah is a North London based singer, who came on the scene in 2010. His unique brand of updated English folk highlights the voice against heavy orchestrations, which often gets compared to people like Nick Cave and Scott Walker. His three albums include A Solitary Man (2011), Gold Dust (2012), and the recent release, Oh Desire (2015). He has received great reviews and a strong following in England and Europe. We talked about the exciting possibility of going to America in the near future. Otherwise Jeremiah will be touring most of Europe the rest of this year.

AL: Your album, Oh Desire, has just come out. How did you approach making this album as opposed to previous albums?

JJ: I wanted to go back to my musical roots with this record. My parents' record collection has a lot to answer for. Dad was into 1950s crooners and mum was into more 1970s folk. I find a home listening to that stuff so ignore whatever is considered currently popular or 'in' right now. 

AL: Were there any new influences on the new album?

JJ: My father was an Anglo-Indian man who grew in a small town in India called Adra, I wanted to put a kind of Bollywood influence on the string sounds for that. I find myself gravitating towards my family a lot more on this record. I've always written from personal experience but feel I am closer now to expressing where I come from and who I am.

AL: You are known for elaborate arrangements and orchestras. How do recreate those sounds in a live situation?

JJ: I hid away for a year in a London studio and just let what ever happen just happen. I always liked the huge orchestration and production even as a kid. I remember delivering newspapers every morning in London when I was a young, the cinematic orchestra of the early seventies always took my mind off rainy London mornings and cold winters carrying bags full of newspapers.

AL: The fact that your family is involved in arts: is that an inspiration for your music in any way?

JJ: My sister Elena Dawson is now a successful designer in London with a wonderful line at Dover Street Market. She occasionally shows me when her garments are in the fashion mags or if the store gets closed on an evening due to some celebrity wanting to come in and try her clothes. She's a talented one.

My other sister Michelle Dawson renovates stain glass windows of cathedrals all over Europe and just had her first exhibition of her work.

I think all this art stems from London weather and being trapped indoors due to it. There even seems to be a link between all our work even though they are within different mediums. An embrace for all things craft and the things that modern day seem to leave behind.

AL: In England, in the past ten years, the music scene seems split up into rock bands of the Oasis and Kasabian variety, and soulful ballad singers, such as Sam Smith and Adele. How do you see yourself fitting into this?

JJ: I've never seen myself fitting into a scene. I'm happy to be the outsider. As my for vocal, all the men in the family have deep baritone voices. It must be something with her Adams' Apples.

AL: How do you approach songwriting? Do you start with lyrics, melodies, or are you trying to convey some emotional states?

JJ: Anything can kick start a song. I'm mostly most productive from midnight when everything goes quiet and there are less distractions of everyday life. 

AL: Which musicians would you like to collaborate with?

JJ: I like to work with people I want to hang out with. Never something organized through a record label brainstorm. That smacks of marketing. Keep things natural and see who contacts you and who in turn I meet.

AL: Have you traveled to America very often in the past? Do you like American music?

JJ: I wrote my song “Happiness” traveling through America. The landscape, the movies, the writers and the singers, the US has a lot to answer for when it come to creative souls.

AL: Any plans to play any festivals this summer?

JJ: I'm just halfway through my own European tour so I'll see how I feel after that regarding festivals. But I like to play perhaps just one or two. Pink pop is a great show and Belgium have an amazing event Rock Werchter. Make them call me!

AL: You have played shows in the UK and Europe. Any plans to play America in the near future?

JJ: I'm hoping to spend the next few months releasing the new album Oh Desire out in the states. It always feels like the perfect place for me whenever I go. Hopefully some shows can be organized there. I'm yet to get in front of a microphone out there.

AL: Do you have any non-musical hobbies?

JJ: Music seems to be the one thing I could ever understand and submerge myself in. Even my hobbies are linked as I collect vintage instruments and can't walk by a secondhand vintage store without seeing what boots, bracelets and belt buckles may be inside.

AL: Would you rather be known from your live performances, or by social networks, and more specifically, streaming sites and videos?

JJ: Social network doesn't come naturally to me even one bit. I've always wanted a personal life away from my music. Sometimes it feels the modern day musician must be equally as capable a networker as a performer. Chasing attention ahead of what's comes naturally. That isn't for me.

AL: When a person comes to one of your shows, what should they expect?

JJ: Each show is a different experience. There are no backing tracks or ways to template what we do as a band. I've always seen performance as a one off experience. A sonic snapshot of one moment between yourself and those I'm fortunate enough to perform alongside. That's what's best for me.

++++

Pull Quote: I find myself gravitating towards my family a lot more on this record. I've always written from personal experience but feel I am closer now to expressing where I come from and who I am.

Pull Quote: Even my hobbies are linked as I collect vintage instruments and can't walk by a secondhand vintage store without seeing what boots, bracelets and belt buckles may be inside.

ZOO MAGAZINE for a fun afternoon's shooting in Amsterdam. I want that #Replay jacket!! XJJ 
"ZOO MAGAZINE NO. 47 - SUMMER ISSUE
North London Troubadour Jonathan Jeremiah is featured in the upcoming ZOO 47! Photographed by Cooper Seykens Photography, wearing Replay!
Head over to our instagram orwww.zoomagazine.com to see more of our music issue!" #jonathanjeremiah #ZooMagazine

Saoirse Ronan Interview

SAOIRSE RONAN interview
By Alexander Laurence

Saoirse Ronan is a young actress who has been in movies like Atonement, City of Embers, and The Lovely Bones. She is also in the new movie HANNA.

AL: How are you doing?

Saoirse: I’m good. I am enjoying the sunshine. Before we go back to Ireland. When we got here at first it was freezing. Then the sun came out a few days ago. It was great.

AL: Do you live in Dublin?

Saoirse: No. We are about an hour from Dublin. We are in a separate county. It’s County Carlow.

AL: Did you always plan to become an actor, or was it an accident?

Saoirse: I suppose it might have been an accident. It wasn’t necessarily something I wanted to do or a dream of mine. It wasn’t anything like that. I started film acting when I was eleven. I did some things when I was eight. At that time I wasn’t thinking about it as a career. My dad was an actor. I did some short films with him and it was lots of fun. I have kept on doing it. The more I do the more I love it.

AL: Did you ever think about taking some acting classes?

Saoirse: I don’t think so. I am taking acting classes twice a year when I do the movies. It’s a four-month acting class that is an experience in itself. I would love to go to college. I wouldn’t want to miss out on that.

AL: I wasn’t saying that you need classes. I was thinking of actors like Brooke Shields and Jodi Foster who acted young, took four years off from college, and did great movies as an adult.

Saoirse: Yeah. Definitely. Jodi Foster is someone who young actresses should definitely look up to. There are many people out there who are similar, like Natalie Portman. She went to college as well. It’s something that I would love to do. I am not sure if I would want to stop acting for four years. I would have to do films in the summer.

AL: When did you take these pictures with Bryan Adams?

Saoirse: It was two or three weeks ago in London. It was good fun actually.

AL: Are you interested in fashion?

Saoirse: Yes. I am interested in fashion as I become older. Like most teenagers, I like to look at Vogue and Elle. I like Zoo Magazine. I like all fashion magazines. I am in the public eye a little bit more, and I am nearly sixteen. I am experimenting with fashion a bit more. I am working with a stylist. It’s great.

AL: Getting beyond the t-shirt and levis thing.

Saoirse: I like doing that as well. I like to chill out. I like clothes that are comfortable to wear.

AL: You did Atonement with Joe Wright. Are you looking forward to doing another film with him?

Saoirse: Exactly. I am really excited to work with Joe again. We get on very well together. For us to come back together four years after we did Atonement is fantastic. We are doing something that is really different from what we have done before.

AL: I see Atonement as a Keira Knightley vehicle. Do you feel that you stole the show a little bit?

Saoirse: Do I feel like that? No. Not really. Atonement was the type of movie where every character was very important. You need Cecilia and Robbie. Definitely you need Briony because she brings the whole thorn into the story. You need Lola. Everyone seems to be quite essential. I don’t think it was possible to steal each other’s thunder

AL: I was thinking more in terms of acting awards. I think some people probably voted for you, and some voted for her.

Saoirse: Oh yeah. I was nominated for best supporting actress, so we were never really in competition.

AL: One of the narrative devices for Atonement is that the character of Briony has the same haircut all her life. All the three characters who play Briony have the same haircut. Did you think that was weird? And did you have to get rid of that haircut so people didn’t recognize you in the street?

Saoirse: Yeah. People would come up to me and punch me in the face. No. It was a wig. So I didn’t have to worry about people recognizing me. They still did but they were shocked that I was nicer than Briony. It was an interesting choice to have that haircut because Briony, from that moment that she accused Robbie of the crime, is stuck in that moment in which she is atoning. She is stuck in the moment of that decision. I didn’t discuss this with the director, but that’s what I think is going on there.

AL: I didn’t see City of Embers, but it made me think. Do you like doing films that are more fantasy, more in a science fiction world, or do you like realistic films?

Saoirse: I like both really. I like films like City of Embers and The Lovely Bones were you have this special world as you said. The special effects guys come in and create this vision. You are not limited to what is on Earth. It’s great to do that stuff. But it is also great to do something that is a family drama. As an actress, you don’t want repetition and you don’t want to keep doing the same things.

AL: With The Lovely Bones, what was it like to work with all these Hollywood veterans like Susan Sarandon and Stanley Tucci?

Saoirse: I heard that giggle. It was fantastic. We were really lucky with the cast and the crew we had. We all got on extremely well. Luckily for Stanley and I, although we had some intense and sometimes uncomfortable scenes together, we were comfortable together, and we got along really well. We joked around. It made it very easy and relaxed for me to be in that kind of environment. I had a lot of people who were really good at their job, and who wanted to make the best possible film. So it was brilliant.

AL: I think of Stanley Tucci as a funny guy and great comedic actor. He plays a bad guy, and he gets all the awards.

Saoirse: Well, he deserves it.

AL: Where did you film The Lovely Bones?

Saoirse: We shot the first two months in Pennsylvania. All the exteriors. Then we went to New Zealand. It was six months all together. We shot on location and in Pete’s studio in Wellington.

AL: What was it like to do all that blue screen acting where you are standing in a room, and all the background is added later?

Saoirse: Yeah. Look at the blue. I mean, the moon. I didn’t mind it, to be honest. I thought it was going to be more difficult. Once you have imagination, and I think I do, and once you have good guidance from the people around you, and they know what they are doing, it’s very easy to react to something that is not there. When we were on set, Pete would talk to me and describe what was going on around me, even though it wasn’t there. He works like an actor, and there was music playing, and many things that we did during a scene.

AL: You have also done this movie with Australian director Peter Weir. It called The Way Back. How was it to do a film with all these tough looking guys? Colin Farrell looks like he can rip someone’s head off.

Saoirse: Have you seen any photos of it?

AL: No.

Saoirse: He looks pretty tough in this actually. He had a big beard. It was fantastic to work on that film. We were in some rough locations like Morocco and Bulgaria. These places were different than any of our homes. There were two Romanians. They weren’t too far from where they lived, but for the rest of us: Jim Sturgess is from London. Colin lives all over. It was very new. I am pretty much the only girl in the film. There is an appearance of a few women in the film. I was the only girl stuck with a load of boys.

AL: Is it comfortable when you are the only girl in a film?

Saoirse: They all looked after me. They were all different ages as well. Ed Harris was like the dad. You feel like one of the boys after working with them for two months.

AL: You are now doing another film with Joe Wright called Hanna, where you play an assassin. How is that going?

Saoirse: Yeah. Very different. It will be good fun. I am training for it at the moment. We are going to film it in Europe and Morocco. I am looking forward to working with Joe again. It will be many people who worked on Atonement. It will be nice to be back with familiar people.

AL: Do you have any favorite authors?

Saoirse: I read a lot of books that are going to be made into movies. Things like The Lovely Bones and The Hobbit. I love anything really. There are some books that if they don’t catch my attention I find it difficult to go on.

AL: Did you ever read any of James Joyce or William Butler Yeats?

Saoirse: I did read a little bit of James Joyce. I read Dubliners. I love that book.

AL: You have been to Academy Awards and BAFTA awards. Do you keep a lot of dresses?

Saoirse: Sometimes. The problem with those dresses is that once you have worn a dress at the Oscars once you are probably not going to wear it again.

AL: Do you do Twitter?

Saoirse: Yeah. I do Twitter from time to time. For a while I was vaguely addicted to it. But now I have to pull back. I only write on Twitter now if I am going to a premiere.

AL: I looked at your Twitter page. I saw that you followed some music people like Lily Allen.

Saoirse: I like Lily Allen and Lady Gaga. I love Lady Gaga. I listen to modern music and some oldies.

AL: Do you go to any concerts?

Saoirse: I have been to a few concerts. I wanted to go to see Lady Gaga in Dublin. She is playing the same day as the Irish Film Awards. I was bummed that I couldn’t go. I have seen Fleetwood Mac.

AL: Do you get recognized a lot?

Saoirse: In Los Angeles, it is happening more. In Ireland, if people come over to you, they are very nice. You feel relaxed. I read in a magazine that Bono said he could walk down Grafton Street in Dublin and no one will approach him. That’s Bono. That is what our country is like. It’s the same in Los Angeles. People have their pride.

AL: Do you have any other hobbies?

Saoirse: Besides watching films, I learned to surf last summer.

AL: (laughs)

Saoirse: You find that funny? I am really quite good at it. I really like it. I was in rage this week in Los Angeles that I couldn’t go down and have a bit of a surf. There you go. I love swimming in a river.