The Iconic Role Saoirse Ronan 'Grieves' Turning Down

We’ve already written at HuffPost UK about how close Al Pacino came to playing Han Solo in the first Star Wars. 

Well, it turns out he’s far from the only iconic actor to miss out on a huge fantasy franchise. 

Speaking to GamesRadar’s Total Film vertical last week, Saoirse Ronan, star of films like The Lovely Bones and Brooklyn, revealed she turned down a role in The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey. 

The movie, which takes place before but is linked to the world of The Lord of the Rings, came out in 2012 and was a box office hit (as in, over-a-billion-dollars-level successful). 

So... why did she turn it down?!

According to the star, she had to choose between the fantasy film and the 2011 assassin movie Hanna. She went with the latter. 

“I was supposed to be an Elf,” she told Total Film.

“But then they rewrote the role, anyway. She was supposed to be a bit younger. It was a choice between Hanna or The Hobbit. And I chose Hanna.” 

She added, “At the time, the idea of being able to go to New Zealand for a year-and-a-half was a dream come true. But there were projects coming in that, as an actor, were so interesting, and that I felt like I couldn’t really pass up.”

“But for a long time, I was grieving the fact that I didn’t get to do it.“

The actor has “spoken to [her] agent” about doing more action

It seems the Lady Bird lead is keen to avoid typecasting, sharing that she’d asked her agent to put her forward for “something that has more physicality to it.”

She said the rigorous workout routine she followed for Hanna has “stayed with” her, stating, “I’m pretty hardcore when I’m training. So I would love to put that into practice again.”