Editor\u2019s note: This interview was originally published on September 5, 2025 at the Toronto International Film Festival. Republic Pictures will release the film in U.S. and UK theaters on Friday, September 18.<\/em><\/p>\n For star Saoirse Ronan, the appeal of a project like director Jonatan Etzler\u2019s English-language debut \u201cBad Apples\u201d is easy to see, harder to parse. \u201cThere\u2019s kind of nothing out there like it,\u201d the actress told IndieWire in advance of the film\u2019s world premiere at the Toronto International Film Festival this week. <\/p>\n In her first interview for the film, Ronan wasn\u2019t putting it on: There really isn\u2019t much like \u201cBad Apples,\u201d and that\u2019s a compliment. Consider two things: the film\u2019s short synopsis (\u201cA primary school teacher [is] forced to take drastic action because of a foul-mouthed, violent student\u201d), which doesn\u2019t sound exactly funny<\/em>, and one of the main inspirations for Etzler casting the four-time Oscar nominee in a film that is, indeed, very<\/em> funny.<\/p>\n It was her work on \u201cSaturday Night Live,\u201d which she hosted in 2017. When I mentioned to Etzler that Ronan\u2019s turn in the film was so amusing and such a good show of her underutilized comedic chops that it sent me straight back to clips from her episode, the reserved Swede smiled.<\/p>\n \u201cActually, that was what I was doing as well,\u201d Etzler told IndieWire. \u201cI, of course, watched all the great films that she\u2019s done, but then I saw this \u2018SNL\u2019 skit where she was a flight attendant. I just saw Maria there, because she\u2019s this person of authority, but she\u2019s also really funny doing this character. That \u2018SNL\u2019 skit was part of the reason why she was my top choice. I\u2019m really happy that people are going to see her great comedic talent.\u201d<\/p>\n The film, based on Rasmus Andersson\u2019s 2020 debut novel\u00a0\u201cDe O\u00f6nskade,\u201d is a pitch black comedy that laces together both tough-talking real-world problems and a zippy sense of the absurd. Ronan\u2019s character, Maria, is a beleaguered primary school teacher whose life is tough enough without the relentless onslaught of bad behavior by young Danny (Eddie Waller, in his debut role). Danny doesn\u2019t just bother Maria, he also upends the rest of her mostly well-behaved class, and when Maria (mostly accidentally) finds occasion to lock Danny in her basement, she goes for it. And life? Oh, it gets better (and funnier and weirder). <\/p>\n \u201cI\u2019d never read anything quite like that, I\u2019d never gotten the chance to play a character that would allow me to find myself in such insane situations, and it was still so hilariously funny,\u201d Ronan said. \u201cI responded to the material, which [screenwriter] Jess [O\u2019Kane] so brilliantly adapted, because that\u2019s my<\/em> sense of humor as well. It was sort of a marriage between her brilliant, dark comic writing, my taste in comedy anyway, and then Jonatan\u2019s style as a filmmaker. The three things really seemed to go hand in hand.\u201d<\/p>\n While Both Etzler and Andersson are Swedish, setting the film in England and casting Ronan, an American-born Irish woman, made for an easy fit. <\/p>\n \u201cThere\u2019s a lot of similarities between our cultures,\u201d Etzler said. \u201cComedy is also a great way to deal with these quite complex issues that this film is dealing with. And I think there\u2019s something very funny about Britain, being a culture where they\u2019re very suspicious of people who can\u2019t really fit into the system. They\u2019re also really clinging onto their past quite a lot, [back at] the times of being a great empire. But I think they are also very happy laughing at it themselves, which is evident in their tradition of dark comedy.\u201d<\/p>\n Andersson\u2019s book struck another chord with Etzler: he previously worked as a teacher, and \u201cthe loss of control that you can get\u201d with the profession popped off the page. When producer Oskar Pimlott came on board, Etzler was considering writing the script himself, but the team was intrigued by the possibility of getting a British voice in there. Eventually, they found O\u2019Kane who had, serendipitously enough, also <\/em>worked as a teacher. <\/p>\n \u201cI could tell pretty quickly that this was going to be somewhat zany and off in its style and trajectory,\u201d Ronan said of the film\u2019s script. \u201cI was hoping it was going to have an unorthodox ending and weirdly, without spoiling anything, it kind of is,<\/em> because your palette has become used to the bizarre and the zany for an hour and a half. Everything is so unexpected with this film. \u2026 I feel like when you put yourself in the uncomfortable, it feels more realistic, and it is kind of closer to home than a lot of what we\u2019re spoon-fed a lot of the time in Hollywood and in the film industry in general.\u201d<\/p>\n Even before Ronan officially signed on, Pimlott said, signs were good that she was into what they were offering. \u201cI remember, after her agent read the script, she sent us a message that was just like, \u2018Wow, absolutely loved it, can\u2019t wait to send it to Saoirse,\u2019 and that was already like, \u2018Oh, that\u2019s great. This is the first actor we\u2019ve approached,\u2019\u201d Pimlott said. \u201cThere were so many reasons why she was at the top of our list, but I think one of them was that we hadn\u2019t seen her do this character before, a kind of good-person-doing-bad-things [role]. You can\u2019t help but empathize with Saoirse Ronan, there\u2019s not a single person out there that doesn\u2019t like her.\u201d<\/p>\n When she signed on in October 2023, it was clear Etzler and team had found a leading lady who wasn\u2019t just excited about the material, but one who truly understood it.<\/p>\n \u201cShe got it immediately<\/em>,\u201d the director said. \u201cShe was our top choice, and she got on board quite early, which was great. She was really excited about doing this crazy project. She was a champion for the film very early on. She has such a comedic talent that we don\u2019t see too much of, but I think she [also] finds moments where she can be very human and a little bit weird. And she\u2019s obviously one of the greatest actors of our generation.\u201d<\/p>\n Crucially, Ronan understood the need to make Maria\u2019s choices \u2014 which, yes, include locking up one of her young students in her basement \u2014 somehow believable to the audience. You have to vibe with what\u2019s happening, insane as it is, or none of this works. <\/p>\n \u201cWe worked really hard on that, just making it as believable as possible, those steps that lead to her locking him in the basement,\u201d Etzler said. \u201cOne of the most important things was making the very core of the film very believable so that we really follow Saoirse\u2019s character all along and we understand everything that she\u2019s doing. When you have that, you can start surrounding it with increasingly more absurd layers. \u2026 And if we can sort of follow her there, then when she\u2019s locked him in the basement, we\u2019re going to look at ourselves and be like, \u2018Oh, what <\/em>am I sympathizing with now?\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n It\u2019s a nutty combination of the absurd and deep empathy, which Ronan was eager to dig into. \u201cYou can see how anyone, even though this is a comedy, anyone<\/em> could find themselves in that situation,\u201d Ronan said. \u201cYou\u2019d all like to believe that you wouldn\u2019t, but when you\u2019re pushed to it, of course you can just take it that little bit farther. And that\u2019s what I love about it. We are all a lot more awkward and dark and twisted and funny and caring and all of these contradictory things. We have the world of Instagram, where we present a certain side of ourselves that isn\u2019t necessarily the whole truth. And then we have this which, if you\u2019re ready for it, is really going to sort of shine a light on that other world. If you let it, it\u2019s incredibly satisfying.\u201d<\/p>\n For Ronan, who has spent the last two decades making consistently compelling career choices \u2014 like last year\u2019s double whammy of wartime drama \u201cBlitz\u201d and addiction story \u201cThe Outrun\u201d \u2014 that really appealed.<\/p>\n \u201cI was very up for that,\u201d Ronan said. \u201cThe more dark it got, the better. One time, when myself and the crew were all sort of feeling like, \u2018Jesus<\/em>, this is super raw,\u2019 is that bit in the beginning when Maria and Danny kind of have their first altercation, and it looks like it\u2019s going to go to a place that\u2019s incredibly dark. Whenever you\u2019re having to do physical scenes like that, there\u2019s only so much you can actually pretend, because you\u2019re physically still having to execute it. That felt quite close to the bone, but in a great way.\u201d<\/p>\n When Ronan and I last spoke in 2024, it was to chat about \u201cThe Outrun,\u201d which she and husband Jack Lowden also produced. Despite the dark nature of the film, Lowden emphasized how much he\u2019s always admired something special about Ronan\u2019s process: \u201cIt\u2019s evident quite quickly with Saoirse is how comfortable she finds it. It\u2019s not something that she struggles with, it\u2019s something that she does things that most people can\u2019t do, but she makes it look like it\u2019s just making toast. How easy she made it look has still never left me.\u201d<\/p>\n When I mentioned that to Ronan, and asked how that feels to her in practice, the answer came appropriately easily. \u201cI wish more people would revel in that actually, because I do think that the work we do can have a huge effect on people, but it\u2019s also not the be-all and end-all,\u201d Ronan said. \u201cIt\u2019s incredibly important and fulfilling for all those involved and anyone it\u2019s shared with. It\u2019s built on pure expression and feeling and, in order for me to be able to feel free enough to do that, I need to be having fun. That\u2019s not to say that every day I\u2019m on set, I\u2019m a laugh a minute, but I enjoy what I do. I also need breaks from what I do.\u201d<\/p>\n Ronan is clear-eyed when it comes to the price of those kinds of choices and that kind of energy. She loves acting now, has loved it all her life, and she\u2019d like to keep it that way. <\/p>\n \u201cI\u2019ve been doing it now for over 20 years, and there\u2019s a fork in the road in my life, where I need to protect my relationship with [my work so] that it doesn\u2019t get stale,\u201d Ronan said. \u201cI know, for me to do my best work, it\u2019s really important for me to stay loose and almost childlike. I think if you spoke to most child actors that are still working, a lot of them probably have the same approach toward the work. There\u2019s a purity to it, and there\u2019s weirdly a simplicity to it that I don\u2019t believe you should shy away from just because you\u2019re older. \u2026 I do this for myself. I don\u2019t do it for anyone else. I do it because I really enjoy it, so I\u2019ll always want to protect that relationship that I have with it. And as soon as it starts to not feel that way, then that\u2019s when I need to do something else.\u201d<\/p>\n Speaking of a childlike approach: \u201cBad Apples\u201d includes a winning supporting cast of youngsters to keep Ronan on her toes, including the astonishing Waller, standout Nia Brown, and the charismatic Mylee Soverall. Casting the kids alongside Ronan was daunting. \u201cProbably number one on the list of \u2018This is probably going to be the biggest challenge of the project,\u2019\u201d Pimlott said with a smile. They turned to iconic casting director Fiona Weir, whose resume speaks to her canny ability to cast kiddos (the \u201cHarry Potter\u201d and \u201cFantastic Beasts\u201d films, most obviously).<\/p>\n \u201cWe found really brilliant kids for the whole classroom, it\u2019s a real kind of mix of kids from different backgrounds, although a lot were fairly local,\u201d Pimlott said. \u201cI remember when we sort of threw Jonatan, Saoirse, and the cinematographer into the room for the first rehearsal with the kids, and they did come out after, a bit eyes wide, looking a bit bedraggled like, \u2018Oh, my God, how are we going to do this?\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n No kidding. \u201cI remember the very first day that I had in the classroom, I was terrified,\u201d Ronan said. \u201cThey\u2019re at that age where they\u2019re not cute little five-year-olds, they\u2019re not babies, and they\u2019re also not teenagers where you can kind of put on the bravado. They\u2019re right in the middle, where they\u2019re going to be super honest with you. They don\u2019t care who you are. They probably haven\u2019t seen any of your films, so you can\u2019t even fall back on that. So I was just meeting them sort of human to human. I\u2019m more comfortable with probably kids than anyone else, apart from maybe dogs.\u201d<\/p>\n For Etzler, the biggest casting challenge was a more specific one: finding Danny. \u201cThe biggest challenge was Danny,\u201d Etzler said. \u201cI think we had 2,000 children auditioning for that part. We were approaching the shoot and I found this boy, Eddie Waller, in the north of England, and he was just perfect. We needed a quite specific kid, who has this sort of anger underneath his skin and we can sort of believe that he\u2019s sort of uncontrollable. That was just hard to find that specific quality.\u201d<\/p>\n The kids made Ronan \u201cup her game,\u201d she said. So well-behaved! So excited! It\u2019s easy to see why that would jibe with Ronan\u2019s feelings about her work. <\/p>\n \u201cA lot of them had never done it before, or maybe they\u2019d been part of a drama group for a couple of years, but they were very fresh, they were very green,\u201d Ronan said. \u201cSo it was very much up to me to sort of adapt to them. As an actor, it was a great exercise. I feel like, the more you do this, you can get jaded, you can get tired, you can get a bit lazy, you can fall into bad habits. And these kids were so well-behaved, they were all about hard work. Fiona found a group of people who are so ready to work, so diligent, really kind and respectful and funny and brought their own personality to it. It was just a joy to work with them.\u201d<\/p>\n When the film premiered in Toronto in 2025, it arrived with plenty of buzz and more than a few questions (\u201cshe locks the kid in <\/em>the basement?\u201d Yes, yes, but she treats him relatively well, all things considered). What was not a concern: that people would laugh, and see Ronan\u2019s skills in an entirely new way.<\/p>\n \u201cI hope people are going to be laughing, but I also think they\u2019re going to be sometimes laughing because they\u2019re uncomfortable, because laughter can be a reaction to discomfort,\u201d Etzler said before the film\u2019s premiere. \u201cI think they\u2019re also going to be looking at themselves and sort of asking, \u2018In what way am I <\/em>complicit in the suffering of others?\u2019 The film is about how we deal with people who can\u2019t fit into society and who can\u2019t fit into these sort of square boxes that we have in our society. I think people are going to be talking a lot afterwards.\u201d<\/p>\n While Ronan was not be in attendance (the actress was pregnant with her and Lowden\u2019s first child, and was understandably not traveling too far these days), she couldn\u2019t wait to hear what audiences thought about it.<\/p>\n \u201cI think it\u2019s philosophical without it being too didactic,\u201d Ronan said. \u201cI think it\u2019s shining light on the uglier side of human nature, while also still making us laugh. I always think the best way to get a message across to anyone is to make them laugh. I\u2019ve always thought the hardest genre is comedy, and to get that right is no kind of mean feat. When somebody does execute that well, it should be celebrated. I think we are at this point where if we don\u2019t laugh, we\u2019ll cry, and \u2018Bad Apples\u2019 really taps into that sensibility right now that we\u2019re all experiencing.\u201d<\/p>\n Mostly, Ronan just loves what they made, her sense of humor taking center stage, tickling all sort of funny bones and poking at some serious sore spots. After all, she said it best. There isn\u2019t much out there like it, or Ronan.<\/p>\n![\"James](\"https:\/\/www.indiewire.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/09\/P106DWG0.jpg?w=300&h=168&crop=1\")
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