Saoirse Ronan has opened up about her career as an Irish woman in film in a new interview.

Speaking to The Independent, the Irish Golden Globe nominee explained that early on in her career, she felt a disassociation from herself as she was working so hard.

“It was intense,” she recalled.

“Everything was kind of changing for me and it felt like I was just sort of floating above my body…because there was so much going on. ”

“There was so much work, more than I’d ever done, and finishing it, and having the work turn out to be good, I was kind of like, ‘Okay, that’s the baptism of fire.'”

Despite her massive Hollywood success, Saoirse has been relatively unchanged by her fame.

“I don’t think anyone’s let lose the run of themselves at home,” she said.

“If I ever hear anybody Irish who, as a producer said once, gives themselves a great welcome, I’m like, ‘Ah lads!’ It’s sort of like the thing with women in film where you’re like, ‘We can’t mess up because we’re the minority, so whenever we produce anything or we’re exported somewhere else, we need to do it better.'”

Touching on her Irishness, she said: “We have some of the best actors in the world, like Cillian Murphy and Daniel Day-Lewis and Charlie Murphy, Sarah Greene, all these brilliant people, and we’re very supportive of each other because we come from a small place and we know how big a thing it is to, like, go out there.”

“The other thing is, Ireland is a country of workers, in the sense that there isn’t this big class system, you know.”

“We all work, and that’s what my mam and dad did, so they kind of raised me to have that same work ethic when I came to whatever job I had.”

Referring to the luxury hotel room she sat in during the interview, she finished: “So there’s this appreciation for all this, and gratitude, but also, like – it’s my job, you know.”