Edgar-Jones: Fermanagh Fields Prepped Me for Sense and Sensibility — SkimNews
Get the Culture newsletter
Daily culture — film, music, books, the trends and ideas worth your attention. Free.
- Daisy Edgar-Jones said fields in County Fermanagh, where her family lives, helped her prepare for her role as Elinor Dashwood, recalling childhood summers "roaming fields in Northern Ireland" under "the big sky."
- Edgar-Jones previously spent five months in Ireland filming Normal People (released 2020); her mother is from County Down, and she said the Irish people make her "always feel so welcome."
- Caitríona Balfe, a County Monaghan native who grew up in Tydavnet, plays Mrs Dashwood alongside Esmé Creed-Miles as Marianne, Fiona Shaw as Mrs Jennings, and Bodhi Rae Breathnach as youngest sister Margaret.
- Balfe said the film reminded her of her own childhood, highlighting the Dashwood family's "resilience" and "sisterly dynamic" — "what you see when they go to Barton is actually this blossoming, because they have each other."
- Balfe called it an "amazing" time for Irish art and said she talks with her husband about moving back to Ireland "all the time" — "you never know, it might be in the future."
- Sense and Sensibility, produced by Focus Features and Working Title and based on Austen's 1811 novel, opens in cinemas on 25 September.
Why it matters: The new adaptation puts four Irish actresses — Balfe, Shaw, Breathnach, and Edgar-Jones, whose mother is from County Down — into lead roles in a major literary property, a pointed showcase for Irish talent that Balfe herself framed as part of "an amazing time in Ireland right now for all the incredible art that is being produced here."
Ask SkimNews
