On December 5, the IndieWire Honors Winter 2024 ceremony will celebrate the creators and stars responsible for crafting some of the year’s best films. Curated and selected by IndieWire’s editorial team, IndieWire Honors is a celebration of the filmmakers, artisans, and performers behind films well worth toasting. In the days leading up to the event, IndieWire is showcasing their work with new interviews and tributes from their peers.
Ahead, “Blitz” star Saoirse Ronan tells IndieWire about make our Wavelength winners, writer/director Steve McQueen and production designer Adam Stockhausen, the ideal professional pairing.
As told to Harrison Richlin. The following has been edited and condensed for clarity.
I was immersed in Adam’s work for the first time on the ground through Wes Anderson’s films. That was long before I ever worked with Steve. And I suppose the true line between both of their work and what they hold dear is that what’s essential to them is truth and reality and building something from the ground up that feels authentic and real. You really feel that when you’re on their set, whether you’re just working with Steve one on one, or you’re got Adam close by as well, it’s a real priority for them to create a tactile space for their actors to work within. It makes everything feel like it’s got more weight to it when you get to act within a world that’s been created by the two of them.
On “Blitz,” the set that comes to mind for me always is the street that the Hanways live on. The face of a terraced house had been completely destroyed and you could see into the home. It almost felt like this very tragic, real-life version of a doll’s house. Something about the pairing together visually of a child’s world and reality in that moment was very affecting and made me feel quite emotional. There’s a woman on the second floor just sweeping her kitchen and she’s trying to clear up as much dust as she can, but her house has been completely destroyed and there is a complete lack of privacy and safety. It’s open for all to see.
Even making the decision to have that in a shot tells so much of the story for us. All I have to do in that scene is just walk to work and I’m observing something that I’ve almost normalized at this stage, but for me, as Saoirse, to be surrounded by that tragedy was incredibly helpful for the performance and for what I needed to do.
What I learned a lot from working with Steve is that the development stage of a film does not need to be set to a rule book. You don’t need to go about that in any particular way in order for it to be a success. He’s got so much faith in fitting in the unknown and allowing the answers to come to you when they’re ready, and not forcing a decision just for the sake of it.
He still is so influenced by his time working in the visual art world and even in independent film. He still works in a way that is very organic and doesn’t come into a room with every decision being made ahead of time. The project was built off of our interpretation of it, our discussions with him, our collaboration with him as creatives, and he wasn’t afraid of that. He wasn’t afraid of the project being pieced together from one stage to the next. I trust the process a lot more now after working with Steve.
In early meetings that I would have with Steve, every single time we would discuss anything, there was always a section of the conversation that was about Adam’s work and something he had discovered through working with Adam. When you’re in the role of writer or director or both, so much of it is in your head for so long.
For someone to be able to realize that for you, to turn it into something real that you can touch, and for that to validate your vision, I think is so important for a creative. I think writer/directors will say, and they’ve certainly said it to me, it can feel quite lonely when it’s just you and your vision. And the fear that that won’t fully be realized is so apparent throughout the process. So to have someone like Adam, who clearly can translate vision into reality, is so important.
