Saoirse Ronan couldn't "explore" the pain of alcoholism in her work until she felt "loved and supported" in her personal life.
The 'Ladybird' star has confessed she has seen the heartbreaking consequences of addiction issues in real life and it's caused her "a lot of pain and resentment and confusion" and she didn't feel able to examine such a personal subject until she was in a stable place in her life.
Speaking at Deadline.com's Contenders Film: Los Angeles event, the 30-year-old actress - who married partner Jack Lowden earlier this year - explained: "Alcoholism for me was like the monster in the corner that I hadn’t dealt with for a very long time.
"It caused me a lot of pain and resentment and confusion in the way that it does for a loved one of an addict, in particular an alcoholic because so much of it happens in quite an intimate space.
"So I had been on the receiving end of that and could see how it can really destroy lives ... The time I finally decided to explore it more and take an interest in understanding it was when I felt very loved and supported in my personal life."
Saoirse plays a recovering alcoholic in her new movie 'The Outrun' and she went on to admit covering the topic in the film didn't make her feel totally better about her own real life experiences but it did take the "sting out".
She added: "I’d be lying if I said I came away from this experience being all forgiving and everything is fine. It’s not. It’s an ongoing journey.
"There’s always going to be pain there and loss and grief. But to have been able to take the sting out of it somewhat and actually humanise it has been a gift that has come out of this movie."
