Sense and Sensibility stars Daisy Edgar-Jones and Caitríona Balfe believe audiences will relate to the Dashwoods’ financial insecurities, and hope viewers come away from the new adaptation with a renewed appreciation for the strength and resilience of women.
The film, directed by Georgia Oakley and written by Diana Reid, is a reimagining of Jane Austen’s much-loved classic novel of the same name.
Daisy Edgar-Jones plays Elinor Dashwood, while Caitríona Balfe stars as Mrs Dashwood, the mother of Elinor and Marianne (Esmé Creed-Miles) and Margaret (Bodhi Rae Breathnach).
Speaking to RTÉ Entertainment, Edgar-Jones said she is particularly proud of the film’s focus on the bond between the Dashwood women.
“I think the true love story is between the women and the sisters and the Dashwood family, definitely.
“They go through a lot at the beginning of the film. They lose their fortune and, at that time especially, it was very difficult to be a woman and to survive, and they really come together. There’s such a strength between them,” she explained.
For Monaghan woman Balfe, the relationship between the sisters was also an important part of the story, particularly given her own household growing up.
“In my first conversations with Georgia, she really wanted to focus on that love story between Elinor and Marianne. As somebody who has a lot of sisters, I think that’s such a formative grounding in your life, to have these female relationships that carry you through all of these trials and tribulations.”
Watch: Sense and Sensibility stars Daisy Edgar-Jones and Caitríona Balfe chat to RTÉ Entertainment
Balfe also believes the Dashwoods’ financial struggles will resonate with modern audiences, particularly in an era when financial security can feel increasingly uncertain.
“I think since going back to 2008, since the housing crisis, we’ve just seen everybody in so many communities live in this precarious place where financial stability is no longer what we thought it was,” she said.
“The previous generations to us, you could get a job and that was a job for life, you were guaranteed a pension and you were guaranteed some kind of security, and I think lots of people can probably see this film and feel this connection to what the Dashwoods are going through.”
Although Austen’s novel was first published in 1811, Edgar-Jones believes there is still plenty for younger audiences to discover in the story more than 200 years later.
“There’s so much you can take from it. I always loved Austen as a reader of her work but also loved the films, as there’s so much to be mined for and to take.
“I wouldn’t want to prescribe anyone to take anything in particular, but for me, the facet of it that I’m most proud of is the strength of these women, and it is a celebration of love in all its forms, in particular sisterly love.
“Also, as an experience of working on the project, it was so remarkable how many positions of the crew were by brilliant women.
“I remember on the last day we had a big group hug and it was Esme and I, Georgia our filmmaker, Diana our screenwriter, and our two female producers, and it felt like a real celebration of girlhood and what we have achieved.
“I hope people come away from it with that feeling of love and that strength of women.”
Sense and Sensibility stars Daisy Edgar-Jones and Caitríona Balfe believe audiences will relate to the Dashwoods’ financial insecurities
Balfe echoed that sentiment, saying it is the resilience of the women in the story that she hopes audiences will take away from the film.
“You look at all of the women in this film and they are all just so resilient under varying different circumstances, and I think that’s a beautiful thing to be reminded of,” she said.
Sense and Sensibility is in cinemas from Friday, 25 September.
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