Saoirse Ronan says ‘The Outrun’ turns the usual addiction story on its head

Saoirse Ronan is a woman right out of rehab healing in her hometown of Scotland’s Orkney Islands in the new film The Outrun, in theaters now.

Ronan told ABC Audio that her character, Rona, stayed with her long after she shot the movie.

“I think just the experience of making the film is one that I’ll never forget. It’s given me so much life experience,” Ronan said. “It’s been a real gift of a project.”

She expressed that The Outrun has turned the usual addiction story on its head.

“This is based on someone’s real life and there are so many young women who are affected by addiction. But I think unfortunately, sort of tragically, we’ve become a little bit desensitized to seeing male addicts and in particular male alcoholics on screen and in the media,” Ronan said.

“It’s sort of become a norm in a really sad way,” she continued. “To take that addiction, that mental illness, and sort of give it a form that we don’t see as much, and sort of wake us up a little bit as a viewer, I think that’s what’s made the effect of the movie even more powerful.”

Ronan noted that addiction does not discriminate between young people, older people, people of any gender, socioeconomic background or race.

“We wanted to open this story up to everyone to reflect the reality of this particular issue, which just affects so many different types of people,” Ronan said.