Saoirse Ronan was on the verge of applying to Hogwarts. The four-time Oscar nominee was asked whether there were any previous parts she regretted not being able to perform during her appearance on Jimmy Kimmel Live! on Thursday, October 3. Ronan stated, “There’s things that you’ll pass on and then they come out and you think, ‘Oh, God, that was a misstep on my part, But I think the one that stayed with me over the years was — I didn’t say no to it, I just didn’t get the part. I lost, again; it’s a running theme for me.”
“But I had gone up for Luna Lovegood in Harry Potter years ago,” Ronan remarked. “Because it was like the Irish character, so they got everyone Irish in, like half Ireland come and audition.” Ronan said she “knew I wasn’t gonna get it because I was too young, but I got to read out a scene that was gonna be in Harry Potter, and it was the coolest thing ever.”
In Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix, which made its theatrical premiere in 2007 and starred then-newcomer Evanna Lynch in the lead role, Luna Lovegood is first presented. In the same year, at the age of thirteen, Ronan received her first Oscar nomination for the film Atonement. Ronan did go on to appear in a few young adult book-to-film adaptations including Stephenie Meyer’s The Host, City of Ember, and The Lovely Bones.