Daisy Edgar-Jones and Esmé Creed-Miles star in Sense and Sensibility, latimes.com reported
Daisy Edgar-Jones and Esmé Creed-Miles star as the Dashwood sisters in a new film adaptation of Jane Austen’s 1811 novel Sense and Sensibility, directed by Georgia Oakley and adapted by Diana Reid, opening in theaters on Friday, latimes.com reported.
Shedding Red Carpet Glamour in Hyde Park
The day after the London premiere of Sense and Sensibility, the film’s lead actors sat in an empty room at an upscale Hyde Park Corner hotel in jeans, sneakers, and casual tops, drinking from enormous glass water bottles, latimes.com reported. While blockbusters are familiar territory for Edgar-Jones—whose career expanded following the 2020 limited series Normal People and subsequent roles in Where the Crawdads Sing and Twisters—the premiere marked the largest red-carpet event yet for Creed-Miles, best known for the Prime series Hanna, according to latimes.com.
“I was a bit nervous with my friends and family all there,” Creed-Miles said, as reported by latimes.com. “I’m very lucky because Daisy has done it before and she’s so cool about it.”
“Absolutely not,” Edgar-Jones replied, adding, “If anything, I think I’m getting more nervous,” latimes.com reported.
Revisiting Austen with a Naturalistic Aesthetic
Both actors and director Georgia Oakley understood the high stakes of remaking Austen’s debut novel, which received its most famous cinematic treatment in 1995 from screenwriter and star Emma Thompson and director Ang Lee, a production nominated for seven Academy Awards, latimes.com reported. Oakley, whose feature debut was the 2022 film Blue Jean, wanted to recreate the feeling of reading the book as a teenager. “In comparison to other Austen novels, I remember it feeling quite wild,” Oakley said in a Zoom interview reported by latimes.com. Oakley added that she wanted to center the relationship between the two older sisters as the main love story of the book.
The production featured an aesthetic characterized by muted gowns, loose hair, and strict adherence to a no-makeup policy. Edgar-Jones recalled that even when she attempted to wear lip balm, Oakley instructed her to take it off, latimes.com reported. Creed-Miles noted that the approach felt true to the period.
Casting and Sisterly Chemistry On and Off Screen
Edgar-Jones, 28, was cast first without an audition to play the sensible Elinor, drawing on her maturity and a “wise older soul quality,” latimes.com reported. Oakley appreciated Edgar-Jones’ restraint, stating that she is able to show much by doing very little. Creed-Miles, 26, faced a more difficult path to secure the role of the emotional younger sister, Marianne, describing her first audition as awful before returning to complete successful chemistry reads with Edgar-Jones and male co-stars, according to latimes.com.
Creed-Miles recalled that she can be a bit of a mess, but after someone called her back, she worked hard and spent days preparing the scenes. Oakley noted that she did not expect to see Creed-Miles again after the first try, but was moved by her performance the second time, praising how she seemed unaffected by preconceived notions of period drama speech. Edgar-Jones praised director Oakley’s vision, stating, “There’s an earthy, undone nature to the world Georgia made.”
The two actors previously worked together on the 2018 drama Pond Life, a shared history that helped build a natural rhythm for their onscreen dynamic.