The role Saoirse Ronan regrets not playing: “For a long time, I was grieving”

Posted On October 30, 2025October 30, 2025

At just 31 years old, it’s not like Saoirse Ronan will have stoked up a whole host of regrets across her life and career so far. But there will always be that little niggle of the road not taken.

Having garnered four Oscar nods before the time she was 26, it’s fair to say that she’s done alright for herself in climbing the ladder rungs of the Hollywood leagues. But the trouble is, when someone has started out so young and hit the golden bubbles of champagne so soon, you’re bound to become more than a little intoxicated by the taste and constantly yearn for more and more. The film world is fickle, though, and regrettable sacrifices always have to be made – Ronan found that out all too soon.

Amid her slew of early elite castings, you would have forgiven Ronan for getting completely caught up in the whirlwind of her never-ending run of A-list sets and never giving a second thought to anything else that might have come her way. But ever the perfectionist professional, Ronan has always had her eye on the next big thing and potential opportunity, and in particular, always wondered if one special role could have represented the road not taken.

“I was supposed to be an Elf,” she admitted last year in an interview with Total Film. But this was not for some sort of frivolous festive romp – it was actually The Hobbit, which she had to turn down the chance to audition for back in the early 2010s.

“But then they rewrote the role, anyway,” she reasoned. “She [the elf] was supposed to be a bit younger. It was a choice between Hanna or The Hobbit. And I chose Hanna…” The tailing off of her voice in that moment may have given way to more than a hint of sadness – should she have exchanged a mediocre action thriller for the chance of a lifetime and a role for the ages?

Of course, this is not to discredit any of Ronan’s roles or her decision-making, but you can’t shake the feeling that the opportunities you let pass you by could have led to something greater. It almost seemed that she agreed. “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.”

Naturally, the mental vision of frolicking around the fantasy fields of New Zealand is always going to seem more romantic in one’s head than it would have actually proved to be in real life. In a lot of ways, as much as she says she grieved The Hobbit, not taking on the massive franchise role may have been a blessing in disguise for the young actor, who refused to be pigeonholed into one character archetype in the vein that many actors in similar circumstances find themselves in.

The road not taken is always going to cause the biggest amount of questions and pain, but if Ronan’s track record is anything to go by, she’s come out the other side more or less unscathed in spite of it. Blockbuster glory may have slipped from her grasp for now, but with a slew of seismic roles already in the pipeline, let alone with decades upon decades of her career left to go, there’s still the chance for anything to happen.

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