Daisy Edgar-Jones, Esmé Creed-Miles Find Sisterly Bond for New 'Sense and Sensibility'

For Daisy Edgar-Jones, stepping into the role of Elinor Dashwood in a new adaptation of Jane Austen's "Sense and Sensibility" meant finding her Marianne. Edgar-Jones, who had long dreamed of starring in an Austen adaptation, noted that for English actors of a certain age, such a role is a rite of passage, with previous versions earning accolades for actors like Emma Thompson and Kate Winslet.

This latest iteration, directed by Georgia Oakley, is distinguished as the first major "Sense and Sensibility" adaptation helmed by a woman. While a cast of male actors, including George MacKay and Frank Dillane, were part of the production, the relationship between the sisters was central. "The film, as I saw it, would kind of live or die by the relationship between those two actors," Oakley said.

The search for Marianne led to Esmé Creed-Miles, an actress who, while perhaps not possessing the same deep Austen reverence as Edgar-Jones, had a significant advantage: a pre-existing bond with her co-star. The two had spent a formative summer together as teenagers making an indie film called "Pond Life" in Yorkshire. This shared history, Edgar-Jones explained, was instrumental in their portrayal of the Dashwood sisters. "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.

During their chemistry read, the intimacy between Edgar-Jones and Creed-Miles was palpable, even in challenging scenes. Oakley recalled a moment during the reads where Creed-Miles, on a break, "helped herself to Daisy’s lunch," an action Oakley found "immediately felt very Elinor and Marianne." "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," Oakley added.

Creed-Miles, whose parents are actors Samantha Morton and Charlie Creed-Miles, has had a varied career, acting since childhood but resisting a full commitment to being a career actor. Her interests extend to photography, music with her band Cusk, and filmmaking, including directing a short film. She was drawn to "Sense and Sensibility" partly due to the opportunity to work with Oakley, whose debut film "Blue Jean" she admired.

Oakley viewed Austen's novel as more than just a period romance, seeing it as a work that "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." The adaptation focuses on a family of four women who lose their fortune and must learn to survive. Oakley opted for a more grounded aesthetic, moving away from the often-polished portrayal of Regency-era films. She referenced films like Andrea Arnold’s "Wuthering Heights" and Kelly Reichardt’s "Meek’s Cutoff" and suggested dresses that appeared stained or soiled to emphasize the characters' difficult circumstances and humanity.

"I was keen to kind of make a film where the characters didn’t feel at arm’s length. That they felt like human beings that we can kind of reach out and touch through the screen," Oakley said. Edgar-Jones found this approach exciting, as she had not seen an Austen adaptation presented this way before.

Creed-Miles agreed that the adaptation aimed to explore the interior lives of the women in ways not often seen on screen. She also noted that their different initial relationships with Austen's work contributed to the film's accessibility. "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," Creed-Miles said. "It might introduce them and introduce a new generation to her characters."