Daisy Edgar-Jones just wanted to know who her Marianne was going to be.
asserted
Marianne → want → who
After a lifetime of dreaming in Jane Austen — reading every novel and watching every adaptation she could get her hands on — she’d been cast as Elinor, the elder, more sensible Dashwood sister, in “Sense and Sensibility” (in theaters Friday).
uncertain
she → dream → theaters
If it wasn’t an inevitability that she, as one of the bright young talents of her generation, would eventually get to be in an Austen adaptation, it might seem that way in retrospect.
uncertain
it → get → retrospect
For English actors of a certain age, starring in one is almost a rite of passage.
asserted
starring → star → passage
Ang Lee’s 1995 version would earn Kate Winslet her first Oscar nomination and Emma Thompson her first screenwriting win.
asserted
Thompson → earn → nomination
And this one was going to be special, having the distinction of being the first major “Sense and Sensibility” to be directed by a woman, Georgia Oakley.
asserted
one → go → woman
And though it was also an inevitability that there would be a slew of handsome men in the mix, including George MacKay, Frank Dillane and Herbert Nordrum (it is the law in Austen adaptation-land, isn’t it?), the relationship between the sisters was, Edgar-Jones said, “kind of everything.”
asserted
Jones → include → sisters
“The film, as I saw it, would kind of live or die by the relationship between those two actors,” said Oakley, who studied Austen in school.
asserted
who → see → school
“It was quite a pressurized situation trying to find sisters that, to me, were believably sisters.”
asserted
that → try → me
One of the names in the mix was Esmé Creed-Miles, who might not have come into the audition process with a deep Austen reverence, but who had something even better going for her.
uncertain
who → come → her
She and Edgar-Jones didn’t just know one another: They had spent a formative summer in Yorkshire together as teenagers making an indie film called “Pond Life” and watching “Love Island” together at night.
asserted
They → know → night
“So much of sisterhood is a shared history, a shared context, a knowledge of one another and so sort of acting across from Esmé, having such an image of her 17-year-old face, really helped,” Edgar-Jones said.
asserted
Jones → share → face
“We just slotted straight into the roles.”
asserted
We → slot → roles
At their chemistry read, everyone in the room could feel an immediate intimacy as they dove into some challenging scenes, like one where the ever-reserved Elinor finally reveals to Marianne that she too is heartbroken over a man.
uncertain
she → feel → man
The exercise even helped Edgar-Jones understand her Elinor a little better.
asserted
Jones → help → Elinor
“Daisy feels like family to me,” said Creed-Miles.
asserted
Miles → feel → me
“We felt so almost spiritually, eerily connected to these women.”
asserted
We → feel → women
That day of the chemistry reads, Creed-Miles had a bit of a break while Edgar-Jones read with someone else and, Oakley said, “helped herself to Daisy’s lunch.”
asserted
Oakley → have → lunch
“I can’t really explain it, but it immediately felt very Elinor and Marianne,” Oakley said.
asserted
Oakley → explain → it
“They were both really funny and kind of goofy with each other and, straight off the bat, they were just like making fun of each other and they just had a very sisterly dynamic.”
asserted
they → make → dynamic
Creed-Miles, whose parents are actors Samantha Morton and Charlie Creed-Miles, has been acting on and off for most of her life, starting with a role at age 6 playing a Shirley Temple impersonator in a Harmony Korine movie.
asserted
parents → act → movie
She also starred in the Amazon Prime series “Hanna” but has kind of resisted committing to being a career actor.
asserted
She → star → series
“It’s not that I don’t like acting or don’t want to act or don’t think it’s important and special, it’s just that there’s lots of other things that I’m also really interested in,” Creed-Miles said.
asserted
Miles → ’ → that
Those other pursuits include photography (her photos from the set were featured in “Vogue”), music (she’s in the alternative rock band Cusk) and filmmaking (she’s directed a short).
asserted
she → include → short
She was interested in “Sense and Sensibility” partly for the chance to work with an up-and-coming filmmaker like Oakley, as a fan of her debut film “Blue Jean,” about a closeted gym teacher in England in the late 1980s.
asserted
She → work → 1980s
“I had always loved this Jane Austen,” Oakley said.
asserted
Oakley → love → Austen
“She doesn’t announce that she’s writing a political manifesto, but she at the same time is like unpacking some really kind of knotty and subversive themes in this book.
asserted
she → announce → book
Giving the film a messier, more undone aesthetic
To tell this story about a family of four women (Caitríona Balfe plays their mother; Bodhi Rae Breathnach plays the youngest sister) who have suddenly lost their fortune and now have to survive on their own, Oakley leaned into an earthier and slightly more undone aesthetic than is often depicted in Regency-era films.
asserted
Oakley → give → films
She showed the cast Andrea Arnold’s “Wuthering Heights” and Kelly Reichardt’s “Meek’s Cutoff” and made playlists full of violin music.
asserted
She → show → music
The dresses she referenced had raspberry stains and soil on them.
asserted
she → reference → them
“I was keen to kind of make a film where the characters didn’t feel at arm’s length.
asserted
characters → make → length
That they felt like human beings that we can kind of reach out and touch through the screen
asserted
we → feel → screen
And so this idea of everything being a little bit more undone kind of came in through that,” Oakley said.
asserted
Oakley → come → that
“This is actually a family who are going through something difficult and who aren’t constantly thinking about how they’re going to be perceived and how they are presenting themselves because they’re not always in the presence of visitors.”
asserted
they → go → visitors
Edgar-Jones said the prospect was exciting to her as she’d never seen an Austen adaptation done this way before.
asserted
adaptation → say → her
“We were not trying to rebel against or go against the grain of Regency-era hair and makeup,” Creed-Miles added.
asserted
Miles → try → hair
“We were actually finding pockets of nuance to how these women express themselves in their interior lives that hasn’t actually been seen before in film.”
asserted
that → find → film
She also found herself developing a deeper relationship with Austen than she’d come in with.
asserted
she → find → Austen
“I think what’s nice about the fact that me and Daisy both had these different relationships to Austen before is that it kind of speaks to, I think, the success of the film and that it really is a movie for everyone, not just Austen fans, but also people that maybe haven’t read her books before
asserted
that → think → books
,” Creed-Miles said.
asserted
Miles → say → ?
…and 1 more, not listed.
The Aporia
