NY Times: Hanna, "a bit of freak, in a great way"

In his New York Times profile, "Finding an Original Heroine", writer Dennis Lim talks with Hanna’s director Joe Wright about the various paths he took to arrive at this film. For one, Wright embraced action cinema. As he told Lim, “Drama can be presented onstage, and beautiful pictures can be presented in a gallery, but really action is pure cinema.” But he became clear that he did action on his own terms, although with a little help from his friends. Citing cinematic references as diverse as E.T. and Being There to Robert Bresson’s stark 1959 Pickpocket and Korean master Park Chan-wook’s cult favorite Oldboy, Wright taled about how  he created a new action film. But he did so with his new leading lady, Saoirse Ronan. As she told Lim:

Usually with characters in action movies, you know what you’re going to get…They’re cool, they have great catchphrases. But Hanna isn’t like that at all. She’s a bit of a freak, in a great way.