Saoirse Ronan wanted to play 'unsympathetic character' in Bad Apples

Saoirse Ronan wanted to play an “unsympathetic character” in Bad Apples.

The 31-year-old actress was director Jonatan Etzler’s first choice for the lead role in his English-language debut and he was thrilled when she agreed to take on the role of Maria, a teacher, who locks an unruly child up in her basement.

He told The Hollywood Reporter: “Saoirse was my top choice. We sent it to her and within a week, she responded, which was great. She really wanted to meet, and she was so keen on doing it because it’s not her usual character to play — she’s been playing a lot of good-hearted people. I think she was very keen on playing an unsympathetic character.

“I talked to her about it, and I said, ‘Yeah, but your character in Lady Bird was a bit unsympathetic at times.’ And she said, ‘Yeah, in Lady Bird, she jumped out of the car. She didn’t lock up a child in her basement.’ I think she was happy to do this part.

“And, of course, I had watched all the great films that she’s done, so I’ve been a big fan of hers. She’s one of the greatest actors of her generation. [She’s] really funny. She has this great comedic quality and she has a sense of finding the weird mannerisms that [she] could make fun of. She made Maria feel both normal and also a bit weird.”

The movie is adapted from Rasmus Lindgren’s debut novel De Oonskade and features Saoirse as the teacher who is struggling with her job due to one difficult pupil, or "bad apple".

As a result, she makes several terrible decisions, culminating in accidentally kidnapping him.

However, Etzler insisted that Maria is not a completely unsympathetic character.

He said: “I don’t think it’s black and white at all. I think what she does is obviously unsympathetic when she locks up Danny in the basement, but I think that’s also one of the reasons I wanted Saoirse because I think the audience would follow her on the journey a lot longer than with anybody else, because she is very sympathetic as a person.”