At just 15 years old, Saoirse Ronan’s poise and charm are surprising. The young Irish actress, who was nominated for an Academy Award for her performance in Atonement, is taking on the dark role of Susie Salmon in Peter Jackson’s big-screen adaptation of the Alice Sebold novel The Lovely Bones.

Parade.com’s Jeanne Wolf talked to the talented teen about the challenge of playing a young girl looking down from heaven in search of her killer.

Helping Stanley Tucci cope.
“I didn’t want Stanley to be upset in the scenes where he has to seduce me. Fortunately, they’re not that explicit. But, I know he was nervous about making me upset and I wanted to let him know that I wasn’t. So I went up to him a couple of times and just gave him a hug and told him I just wanted to make sure he was OK. It was quite a few months into shooting before we actually did the scene. Stanley and I were quite anxious to get the day out of the way. Luckily, Stanley and I are very comfortable with each other and we get on well. I think that was essential in order to get that intensity on screen. We could bounce off each other and sort of freak each other out in a way.”

Stanley Tucci on His ‘Most Difficult’ Role Yet

The challenges and pain.
“It was thrilling as an actress and it was also tough emotionally. When I would go home, I’d just try not to think about how this can happen to young people, how they can be hurt in this way. That was quite difficult. But, it was certainly a big challenge for me to capture all of these different emotions and I love doing that. I love not being the same through the whole film.”
Watch the video

Audiences will be moved.
“I didn’t think about it as much beforehand, but I certainly do now. It’s interesting because we’ve had friends who have gone to screenings of the film and they said that the first thing that they did when they came out of the picture house was either call their children to make sure they were OK or rush home to give them a hug and a kiss and take care of them. I think that’s good. People will hopefully become more aware of these kinds of things and appreciate just generally life a little bit more.”

Vote For Your Favorite Stars of 2009!

She couldn’t face the book.
“I read the book after I made the film. Since I knew the ending, the movie just spoiled the book for me. I waited until afterwards because when I started making the film I was 13 and I had heard that, in particular, like the first chapter or so was a tough read. So I just wanted to focus on the script version of the story, and just wait until I was a bit older really.”

Acting all by herself.
“When we used blue screen, there were different things that they figured out would help me. Of course, everything that I needed or most of it was in the script already. We would also play music during the day. I mean, we played it every day during the shots — music that would reflect the mood of the scene. And that would help me so much. Pete would talk to me during takes as well and just describe what was going on around me. So I was able to react to that. It was nice because I never felt like I was on my own because I had my little guardian angel there.”

See photos of Teen Stars Turned Superstars

What’s makes her so mature.
“I’ve been around adults from an early age, more than your average child, I suppose. And, I’ve gotten quite mature, I suppose, just from being around them. I like talking to adults. I like being able to converse with them. I guess I’ve benefited from that.”

Hey, she can still be a kid.
“I am so silly. You’re seeing me, like, proper now, but when I’m back at home with my friends, I’m mad, I’m crazy. I try to be funny. I don’t know whether I succeed, but I try to be funny. I can be quite loud and hyper, hopefully not in an annoying way. I hope my friends don’t think that.”

Don’t call her a child actor anymore.
“I don’t want them to wrap me up in cotton, wool or anything. I don’t want people tiptoeing around me. I still want to be treated as an actor, not a child actor. Of course, I’m only 15, and plus I haven’t been doing this for very long. But, I like people treating me as their equals and they have so far.”

Keeping her success in perspective.
“It’s definitely changed my life, but not at home. I mean, once I go home I’m back to normal and back at school and everything. Most of the kids just treat me the same and it’s really nice that I still have that.”

Nobody can seem to get her name right.
“Oh God, they’re really bad. They call me names like ‘Sari,’ ‘Shership,’ and Sureese.’ Really weird names that are nothing like my name. It’s definitely 100% Saoirse. [That's SIR shuh]“