Saoirse Ronan 'unbelievably nervous' about U.K. stage debut

Saoirse Ronan is feeling "unbelievably nervous" about her stint on the London stage in The Tragedy of Macbeth.

The four-time Oscar nominee stars opposite Mare of Easttown actor James McArdle in the latest stage retelling of William Shakespeare's tragedy, which opened at the Almeida Theatre in Islington, London on Friday.

During rehearsals for the production, the Irish actress admitted to BBC News that she felt "unbelievably nervous" about taking to the stage in the U.K. for the first time.

"You get hit with waves of panic and terror and I'm not kidding about that. You do feel suddenly stuck for a minute in anxiety about what you're doing. But then you pull yourself out of it," she confessed. "It's been a real learning curve for me in just how much you can test yourself. Because you do feel that on film as well, but I think this is intensified.

"Every day, every hour is completely different. You could feel really confident for a while in what you are doing and feel really great going forward and then something happens that will knock you again. It's just the experience of doing something that feels initially very, very new and feels like uncharted territory."

She added that she suffered crippling stage fright when she made her Broadway debut in a revival of Arthur Miller's play The Crucible in 2016 and sometimes "sort of floated above my body for the whole first act".

Laughing, she added, "But... it's not going to happen on this, so it's fine."

The Tragedy of Macbeth runs until 20 November.