Saoirse Ronan's dog was nearly her Oscars date

23 February 2018

Saoirse Ronan was tempted to bring her dog Fran as her date to the Academy Awards this year.

Saoirse Ronan

The 23-year-old actress has been nominated for the Best Actress prize at this Oscars for her performance in 'Lady Bird', and although she is taking her mum, Monica, to the ceremony, Saoirse revealed she almost decided on taking the beloved family pooch.

While appearing on 'This Morning' on Friday (23.02.18), Ronan told presenters Ruth Langsford and Eamonn Holmes: "Fran is our puppy. She's a dog. I call myself my mother's first child and Fran is definitely the second child could be replacing me very soon.

"I mean Fran was in the running for a while to come to the Oscars but we all had a discussion about it and Fran was like ' You know what I'm going to take a step back, because this is my first year in the house and I think mam - my mum - you should go.' It's quite big of her."

This nomination marks her third nod after previously being in the running for Best Supporting Actress for 'Atonement' in 2008 and Best Actress for 'Brooklyn' in 2016 - and is looking forward to being able to properly party after the ceremony for the first time and she and her mam can't wait to let their hair down.

She recently said: "This time my mam is coming with me and she's very excited. She's like; 'We are gonna dance! We are gonna have fun!' We've got a whole chill out day in a spa planned for the day after. It will be great! We have an amazing relationship. Every now and then we go, 'Oh God, we are really lucky, aren't we?' "

The Irish beauty's correct pronunciation of her name has been on the tip of people's tongues ever since she landed the nomination and Dennis Quaid - when presenting the Golden Globes back in 2015 - pronounced it incorrectly.

But Saoirse admitted now, she finds how people say it is "really, really funny" and everyone has their own way of saying it.

She told Ruth and Eamonn: "It is funny. At the start when I was a kid it annoyed me. I was sort of very defensive about my name.

"As I've gotten older, I find it really, really funny. It's a name you can't forget. Everybody has got their own version of it."