Here are some of the highlights of the Hanna movie panel at WonderCon 2011, followed by the transcripts of the press-only roundtable interview session that followed, with actress Saoirse Ronan and director Joe Wright. 

• Wright was brought to the Hanna project by Ronan, who had worked with him previously in the movie Atonement.  He was inspired by elements of early Hitchcock films, Italian films circa the 70’s, and French new wave films. 

• The Chemical Bros. had recorded some of the music prior to the shoot; Wright played the completed music on the set to give the actors a sense of timing.  Wright is fascinated by the marriage of good sound and vision—“Sound is underrated in modern cinema”.

• Wright is a huge fan of the Bourne films, and as Hanna and the Bourne films share the same Jeff Imada as stunt coordinator, he wanted to be noticeably different from the movie franchise, most notably, creating many single-take, steady camera shots in the film.

• Ronan studied different fighting styles (stick fighting, weapons training, etc.) to prepare for the action sequences in the movie, working out every day.  A specific fighting style was customized for the Hanna character based on Ronan’s height and build as well as the personality of the character herself.

• Wright was drawn to the character of Hanna, and wanted to address the place of young women in society: “Female empowerment is not about sex, it’s about brains and not objectifying women of the world.” He mentioned a very specific movie currently out in theatres…

• When asked about how she prepared for the Hanna character, Ronan being a very modern girl being made to play an isolated character away from Facebook, et al., she mentioned that it helped her a great deal that the scenes were shot in chronological order.  She wiped her mind clean of any modern influences to “reawaken fascination in everything”, citing an example where Hanna sees a plane for the first time—“it was one of the most pure exercises I’ve ever done”.

Roundtable Interview: Saoirse Ronan

Q: We have a few unrelated Hanna questions real quick…

A:[Laughs] Well no, let’s have a few unrelated Hanna questions.

Q: Can you talk about whether or not you’re going to be in the Hobbit?   

A:No.  [laughs] I can give you a wink, but no, nothing’s been confirmed yet.

Q: Even considering your relationship with Peter Jackson?

A:Aah…I would like to think that he would hire me for his next film, and that would be lovely. I love Pete, I really do, and I know you guys love him as well, I know, he’s a hero here, so it’d be great to be involved, it really would, but honestly nothing has been confirmed yet, even on my side.

Q: So City of Ember, one of my favorite books, the Lovely Bones was a huge bestseller, and I’ve been waiting for a couple of books that I read when I was younger to magically appear on the big screen. But what are some of yourfavorite books, and which would you just die to star in, if it were to be turned into a movie?

A:Oh…there was a great book that I read when I was younger, and I need to re-read it again, but it was called “The Secret of Platform 13”, have you heard of that book, by Eva Ibbotson?  And I loved it.  I can’t quite remember everything about it, but I remember it being quite magical.  I’d love for that to be made into a film, I think it’d be really beautiful.  I dunno what part I’d play… is there a princess in that?  I think there might be.  Yeah, maybe I’d play her. That’s a book that really left…left an impression on me. And the Hobbit is a great book, as well.  I do, I love that book.  It’s always exciting, when you have your own version of a story, and basically you’re imagining a movie in your head, and then suddenly someone’s actually putting it on the screen it’s kind of nerve-wracking and exciting at the same time.

Q: What was it like, to step into a role like Hanna, that’s so action-oriented, but there’s a deeper emotion to her as well?

A:Yeah, the action was exciting, and at first that was what attracted me to the role, that’s just what she’d be, an action-heroine.  But then as we went along, especially when Joe [Wright] came on board, and the story really developed into basically a messed-up action-fairy tale [laughs] and that gave us that surreal situation that we were building our story, and gave us room to breathe, and kind of create whatever we wanted to do, whatever we want as an actor, that’s brilliant, you can mess around and be a bit weird and not quite realistic all the time.  What’s good about the performances—not speaking about mine, but everyone else’s—the emotions are true.  And they’re honest, even though they’re in a very abnormal place, an abnormal world, it’s the truth.  And I liked that. To play someone like Hanna,especially the emotional side of her character, I needed to basically wipe my mind, and my memory, of anything I’d ever gone through, any experience that I’d had, because she hasn’t gone through any of that.  Technically she’s a teenage girl, but she’s not, really. And there is one scene– I’m guessing you guys have seen the film—this scene where she looks up and she sees a plane flying across the sky for the very first time, and using your imagination, wiping your mind clean, you’re able to really appreciate how fascinating something like this is.  It’s a great exercise for an actor.

Q: How do you play a character that’s literally incapable of feeling remorse, someone outside of human experience, with a different concept of emotions?

A:I guess I just understood her. I understand why she’s doing what she’s doing, it is quite a human motivation, which is love, and safety and protection of her father, and their life, and their world is being threatened, and even though she’s been unaware of it, has been since she was born, and her life was in danger because of this one woman…and I forgot my question…what’s the question again…right, she’s doing it for the right reasons…no, not the right reasons, but she’s doing it for a very human reason.  I don’t draw experience or anything when I’m playing a character, so once you’ve gone over a script in your head, where she’s coming from, and what she’s trying to achieve, and who she is as a person, it’s quite natural to just slip in to that state of mind.

Roundtable Interview: Joe Wright

Q: Looking at past movies, you’ve done dramas: The Soloist, Atonement, Pride and Prejudice.  Was it a conscious decision that made you move in another direction?

A:I wasn’t looking for action, really.  It just kind of happened. Saoirse was sent the script and suggested that I direct it.  I read the script and I was intrigued by the character of Hanna, I really like the unique perspectives and the ability of film to help her see the world in different ways…Hanna the character has quite a unique perspective of the world.  Although, having said that, the action stuff, I was fascinated by the challenge of shooting at each other, and I really enjoyed it.

Q: Is your process a lot different [with action]?

A:No, I tried to apply the same process, really. I was very nervous about the fight stuff, but I thought, “we’ll treat it like dance”, you know, I had a little experience shooting dancing in Pride and Prejudice, so I learned from that experience, rather than try and cram up on action and try to shoot it as other people did.

Q: What were the challenges of filming Hanna, an original movie script, versus an adaptation like Atonement or Pride and Prejudice?

A:Well, I like literal adaptations because they set parameter, and I quite like working within parameters; I find the limitations are often the mother of invention. With this, when you’re working with an original script, one can suddenly be struck by terrifying options/parameters, and you’re literally paralyzed…because there’re so many options. But there’s a kind of liberty, a freedom, a sort of playfulness, that was possible with this film, and that was very enjoyable.

Q: How did you feel coming into this, knowing that some movies, like the Bourne movies, that rely heavily on drama, created almost an “action drama”?

A:I think that one of the things that Paul Greengrass and the makers of the Jason Bourne films showed us that you can make an action film with a social and moral conscience. Prior to that, especially in the 80’s and 90’s, action films seemed to be the prerogative of bulls*hit semi-misogynistic creeps, really. And I was thinking that I didn’t want to make that kind of film, because I despise that kind of attitude. So Jason Bourne did show us, it’s no mistake, that the journalist he was involved with the Guardian newspaper, which is, or was a decidedly Socialist newspaper.  So there’s an opportunity there to actually reach an audience that one might not necessarily reach with a traditional drama movie, and that was very exciting.  On the other hand, the cinematic style of those movies has been imitated a lot, and [I] wanted to avoid imitating and falling short of what he’d done, so [I] tried to find new and original ways to shoot the action. Thematically, I think they[The Bourne movies] taught us a lot.

Q: Is there a political message that’s contained in the film?  Should we assume an allegory about the limitations of US power, or is it a more straightforward story?

A:Hopefully the film works on different levels. It can be taken as a pure fantasy action thriller and enjoyed on that level, but also I think that it’s important that we make work that’s responsible and has layers to it, so that it can be enjoyed by an intelligent audience. I think that a lot of films underestimate an audience’s intelligence, they think that people can’t cope with entertainment and thought-provoking issues at the same time.  So the film does deal with certain issues, less about American foreign policy, more about social issues, regarding the treatment of women in society, consumer culture, celebrity culture, the objectification of women, female empowerment issues like that, have been re-appropriated by a commercial industry and bastardized.  As I mentioned in the panel, when you look at films that have been released very recently, they have young heroines wearing mini-skirts and crop tops and ponytails ; their names are allusions to children, and yet, these women are sexually objectified and they suggest that that’s somehow female empowerment. To me that stinks, and I resent those words being re-appropriated, it’s for purely cynical, commercial gain, and I hate it.

Q: The film has taken off on the internet and social media; did that happen organically, or was that part of the plan to get people interested virally in the film?

A:I live in a funny little world, in a house that was built in 1726, and I have a small community, and I’m not really engaged in the viral world, I prefer spaces, so it’s a new world to me.  It’s exciting, though, to see that happen.  I was in LA the other week, and I was like, there are no posters for Hanna, where are the f**king posters for Hanna, it’s a disaster, and actually, they don’t spend the money on posters anymore. They spend it on the internet, and it’s been an education for me.  What I like about the instant marketing is that it’ll be picked up by people if they want to pick it up, and it won’t be if they don’t want to…I find the openness quite thrilling.

Q: Speaking of marketing, they seem to be actively marketing the score.  Can you talk a little about the soundtrack and its use?

A:I’m a huge music fan, and I’ve been a fan of the Chemical Brothers for about 20 years. I’ve always wanted to work with them on a soundtrack.  I remember when I was working TV before I worked on Pride and Prejudice, [doing] a sound mix for a TV show, and you have this horrific red bar thing or whatever, and it goes, “mee-mee-mee” and you say, “it’s too loud, turn it down” [because] you’re mixing it so it comes out of a tiny TV speaker.  And now, you’re working with THX and 5.1, and you’ve got an enormous dynamic sound range, which is just thrilling.  And the Chemical Brothers, certainly, create a new dimension in bass…I love bass. 

Q: During the panel you mentioned going on location, but what are your thoughts about green screen technology?

A:I like it, and I think it’s useful, but it confuses me, my literal brain; I find it quite difficult to understand. Also, I’m not very good at taking holidays, so I use my work as an excuse to travel. I like going to extraordinary places and seeing the world, bringing that back and showing my audience that world as well. I liked David Lean and when he came back with Lawrence of Arabia, it was a mind-blowing thing! I really enjoy that aspect of that; I was brought up in puppet theatre with the puppets every year, traveled and met amazing people, worked with them.  I like that aspect of it.  I admire blue and green screen, but it’s not really my bag.  I really wanted to make an adaptation of the Little Mermaid, and that was one of the things holding me back, but with the amount of blue and green screen involved I’d get really bored on set.

[Interviews have been edited and condensed]

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