Saoirse Ronan: 'I've never had an experience like it, nor will I ever ...

Ronan and Lowden had met when filming Mary Queen of Scots (2018), when the Bronx-born Dubliner was playing the northern monarch, and Lowden starred as Mary's villainous second husband Lord Darnley. Lowden has spoken of his desire for more Celtic stories to be considered and, after the pair established Arcade Pictures and became co-producers to bring their vision of the book to life, production on the film began two years ago.

The tiny Orkney island Papa Westray, also known as Papay in Scotland, is an essential character in the story, adding to the film's other-worldly and ethereal atmosphere. "The interest came from building a personal story and a location," says Ronan.

Much like the lives of the earliest monks and St Magnus, whose story dominates the Orkney Islands, bringing the film into existence has been a mission for the pair.

Saoirse Ronan and her husband Jack Lowden. Picture: Duncan McGlynn/Getty 

The film premiered at Sundance in January, but its first showing on this side of the Atlantic was at Edinburgh International Film Festival in August, an important show of support for the event.

"The festival is something I try to attend every year if I can so to be able to premiere this story in Edinburgh of a film that is so Scottish was very important. It's also very Orcadian in its identity and so it's special to share that with Scottish folk," says Ronan.

I ask what had drawn her to make the essential first step in lifting the veil on a location such as Papa Westray, one key line in the book gives a clue to a prevailing mentality; that the character's "real life is in London", while home is somewhere to be left behind.

"I think there is such a romance to Scotland, and I don't mean the shortbread and tartan version,” explains Ronan. “Historically, going back much further there's a darkness and beauty as well as a connection to the land, like in Ireland. Mystery is also part of that, it's in the people. Jack and I want that to be explored more and more, there is such a rich storytelling culture.

“If we can help bring that out then we want to. So many incredible and talented people feel they need to move down south to have a career, especially in the arts and if there's a world where that can come back home then we would love to be a part of that."

Amy Liptrot's nocturnal life in the Hackney area of London is a cycle of alcohol-fuelled hedonism and confusion around the area's clubs and pubs. Mayhem soon descends into life-threatening danger.

This contrasts with life on an island where she takes a job working for the RSPCA, finding calm among the sea birds, or stargazing in a sky free from light pollution. It's also the power of the natural world around that helps nudge her towards recovery, redemption and, as the book suggests, becoming "re-born”.

Critics have already been fulsome in their praise for Ronan’s portrayal of Liptrot, not least this newspaper’s Declan Burke who called it a “career-best performance”. The return of the actress to Oscar-contender conversations is also particularly welcome given that her previous outing, in Foe alongside Paul Mescal, was poorly-received.

Saoirse Ronan and Paapa Essiedu in The Outrun

Ronan, now 30, looks very much back on track with a series of interesting roles. In November, we’ll see her in Steve McQueen's World War II drama Blitz, followed by Bad Apples, an adaptation of a Swedish novel.

Ronan has spoken of being close to the pain caused by alcoholism, and how she has cut back on her own alcohol intake since making the film. How difficult was it to play a living character as opposed to some of her fictional characters?

 “I sort of agreed with Amy [Liptrot)]and Nora [Fingscheidt, director], it was important for me to creatively and emotionally have a separation from the character. It had to be its own entity from the beginning which allows the film a separate creative dialogue which partly comes from me.” 

The film captures the pain of repetition, especially for Rona's long-suffering boyfriend who leaves after one too many blazing rows and trips to the hospital. The blood of a self-inflicted wound from a broken glass is soon traded for blood during the lambing season on her father's farm. The simple fact that the island doesn't offer a 24-hour off-licence means hard drinking is no longer an option.

"There are also parts which needed to honour Amy in terms of the recovery and rehabilitation, that information was just invaluable, that's something you can't bring if you haven't had those kinds of conversations. It's more scary because you are very aware of the responsibility to realise the character who is the representation of this real person and their real life. It's also a very painful period in this person's life so it has to be as authentic and as layered as you can make it. You owe your performance to someone in particular, and I don't think that's a bad thing."

The Outrun is set on the Orkney Islands

Before filming began, Ronan had visited Papa Westray, where the Westray to Papay flight is the shortest scheduled passenger flight in the world, clocking in at around one minute. The author Liptrot recently returned there with her own family. "It's a place I'd want to take my children, and much more than a filming location," says Ronan. "In the final leg of the journey we created this micro-crew, we lived together, worked together, ate together and had days off together."

There were challenges shooting the mostly winter-set film on the islands in summer, a time where it never gets dark. The cold months are long and bleak, so community and the associated events of suppers and social gatherings of people, many who have often left city life behind, become essential.

"The community on the island could not have been more important and, as cheesy as it sounds to say, it this film couldn't have been made without them, and their knowledge of the place. I've never had an experience like it, nor will I ever again, it stays with you for ever," says Ronan.

The Irish actress hopes The Outrun will kick-start a new wave of Scottish cinema while redirecting stories and talent in Scotland and Ireland.

While narratives concerning alcoholism among Celts are in wide circulation, the sense of place in this film is exotic, the dialect of locals is almost unheard elsewhere, and the epic sweep in which the main character envelopes herself in this magical place offers impressive viewing. It's while driving at dawn listening to happy hardcore tunes that Liptrot suggests she "feels like the Queen of Orkney". It appears Saoirse Ronan has a knack for playing celebrated Scottish monarchs.

The Outrun is in cinemas from Friday, September 27