Saoirse Ronan has perfected her politely courteous 'loser face' for the Oscars

The lovely and always charming Saoirse Ronan is nominated for a Best Actress Oscar this year. But in case it doesn’t go in her favor, she’s already perfected how she’ll react, and she demonstrated her “loser face” in an interview with BBC Radio 1.

“When the person wins … I’ll probably be very happy for them because they deserve it,” she said. And being an actor, she put on a politely courteous — but not overly happy — expression. Also key to the reaction is a limp-wristed one-handed clap, Ronan said.

Ronan also explained Oscar date dynamics, specifically when to know if somebody’s ready to be your Oscar date. Ronan, who brought her friend Eileen as her plus-one to the Golden Globes, says unless you fall in love with the person on your first date, it’s tricky.

“If it’s more one of those situations where you’ve got to warm up a bit, I would wait until date 10,” she said.

And even if you make it past date 10, there’s plenty more anxiety in store. “And then I’ve got to do the loser face in front of this person I don’t know that well,” Ronan said. “And do they do the loser face with you? If they don’t know you that well, how are they going to comfort you when you lose? That’s why you bring your mom.”

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