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Opening in theaters on September 18th is the new dark comedy ‘Bad Apples’, which was directed by Jonatan Etzler and stars Academy Award nominee Saoirse Ronan (‘Lady Bird’).
“It only takes one.”
Release Sep 18, 2026Runtime 1h 40m
Moviefone recently had the pleasure of speaking with Saoirse Ronan about her work on ‘Bad Apples’, her first reaction to the screenplay, working with the young actors on set, the film’s specific tone, collaborating with director Jonatan Etzler, and the most challenging scene for her to shoot.
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Moviefone: To begin with, can you talk about your first reaction to the screenplay and what were some of the aspects of your character that you were excited to explore on screen?
Saoirse Ronan: I found the script incredibly funny, refreshing, and shocking. I was quite invigorated by it because it was just something that felt really fresh and unique. I think the combination of like Nordic noir, thriller, and British humor. is kind of this winning combination. So, I loved that and I loved sitting in that darker space while it also, you know, makes you laugh.
MF: Can you talk about Maria’s relationship with her students, Danny and Pauline, and what it was like working with young actors Eddie Waller and Nia Brown on set?
SR: The relationship with both of them is incredibly problematic. One starts off in a very aggressive place between her and Danny and ultimately becomes something quite tender and intimate, I think because they see each other in a way that no one else sees them and they give each other time in a way that no one else does. It’s exactly the same with Pauline. She comes from a place of mild obsession with Maria, my character, and it quickly becomes very sinister and threatening. Getting to work with both of them was just a total thrill. They’re two very different actors, I think, in a lot of ways. I can almost see Nia becoming a writer. She had a very good sense of where the lines needed to go and she could see it all play out before her. With Eddie, he was so emotional and sensitive and raw, and it was just a pleasure for me to get to work with two very different performers. I loved it.
MF: The movie has a very specific tone. As an actor, is that something you think about on set, or do you just leave that up to the filmmaker you are working with?
SR: I mean, certainly when you’re dealing with the abduction of a child, you’ve got to make sure that you’re sensitive to what you’re actually putting on screen, I suppose, bearing in mind what we want the overall tone to be. I think we were pretty clear on what we needed the overall tone to be, so it was just about making sure that we honored that and it didn’t ever go to a place that actually felt like properly sinister. Ultimately, it’s a comedy. So we needed to stay in that place, I think, throughout.
MF: What was your experience like collaborating with director Jonatan Etzler on set?
SR: It was great collaborating with Jonatan. He is an ex-teacher himself, so he has a lot of knowledge when it comes to that line of work and he was able to bring so much of his own experience to it and the film that he’d made previously was also about a teacher in Sweden. So, it was very much in his wheelhouse to do something like this and he’s an incredibly sweet man. He knew what he wanted the film to be. So, it was great to work with him.
MF: Finally, was there one scene in particular that was challenging for you to shoot, and how did you overcome that challenge?
SR: The most difficult scene to shoot was the scene early on when Danny is attacking Maria’s car and its raining. We shot that really late at night. It was a massive stunt sequence, with proper fight choreography that Eddie and I needed to perform. So there was a lot of prep beforehand for that. Obviously, working with a child, but working with a child who’d never done something like that before, you want to be mindful of their safety and their comfortability and all that sort of stuff. There’s also a moment where you think that he’s dead and she’s pushed it too far, so it was kind of harrowing to shoot. I remember myself and the crew afterwards were quite shook by it. So, I would say that was the trickiest scene for sure, and overcoming it, you just get on with it.
What is the plot of ‘Bad Apples’?
Maria Spencer (Saoirse Ronan) is a teacher at a primary school in Somerset, England, finding her class of ten-year-olds disrupted by one unruly pupil and, after an escalation of events, kidnaps the boy and locks him in her basement where she cares for him herself while he is searched for by the authorities.
Who is in the cast of ‘Bad Apples’?
