Saoirse Ronan almost won the role of eccentric Luna Lovegood in Harry Potter, which ultimately went to Evanna Lynch. Although Ronan made his way in the industry, even earning four Oscar nominations for his roles in Atonement, Brooklyn, Lady Bird and Little Women, he lost the lead role in Harry Potter that stuck with him for a long time.
While appearing on Jimmy Kimmel Live, the actress reminisced about the roles she wanted to do. Ronan said, “There are things that you push past and then they come up and you think, ‘Oh my God, that was a wrong move on my part.'” But the role she most regretted losing was Luna Lovegood.
Despite trying many times, he did not refuse this role but he did not get this role. “I lost again. It’s an ongoing topic for me,” she added. Ronan recalled how half of the people from Ireland who auditioned for the role were required to be Irish. She felt they were being “too young”. Reason would lead to her being rejected for the role, but later reading the scene, she recalled it as “the coolest thing ever.”
The character first appeared in the fifth installment of the franchise Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix, released in 2007. Fate clearly had a better plan for Ronan, whose film Atonement – in which she played the younger sister of co-lead Keira Knightley. – was released the same year and received her first Oscar nomination at the age of 13.
Since then, he has continued his streak of playing entertaining characters and garnering love and appreciation for his work. Once again, the actress is garnering Oscar buzz for her new drama The Outrun.
Speaking to Kimmel, the four-time Oscar-nominated actress jokingly referred to herself as a “four-time loser.” She also mentioned her husband Jack Lowden, who recently lost at this year’s Emmys. “We’re a house of losers,” he joked. The Little Women actress revealed that before every awards ceremony where she is nominated, she bets on going to a bar if she loses and that’s exactly what she ends up doing.
“Because that’s essentially what’s going to happen — and we’ll have our popcorn and we’ll have a great night and it won’t matter if we both lose,” she said. “We have very low expectations of ourselves,” joked Ronan.