“She was so generous with her knowledge and wisdom, but she was also interested in what I thought,” gushes Oliver. Abrahamson made sure to send her cuts from the edit bay, and Rooney also met a starstruck Oliver over Zoom after she was given the role as Frances. Rooney contributed to early decision-making on the show (weighing in on the casting decisions, most notably) but politely bowed out from the heavier production work in order to focus on Beautiful World (which hit shelves in September 2021). “I’ve read all her books right when they came out, and was a huge fan of Normal People the show.” “I was very aware of how loved Sally is,” says Alwyn. While all four were, of course, aware of the grandiosity of the Rooneyverse, Oliver, who was plucked straight from the same Trinity College drama program that spawned Normal star Paul Mescal, and Alwyn in particular were fans before the call came to audition. Kirke and her castmates - Joe Alwyn as Nick, newcomer Alison Oliver as Frances, and Sasha Lane and Frances’ best friend (and ex-girlfriend) Bobbi - had the unique responsibility of not only answering to the cultish fandom around the show’s source material, but also the popularity and success of Normal People, which was Rooney’s sophomore novel and the first to be adapted (also for television, also by Abrahamson and his team at Element Pictures). You just can’t let that sit in an email.” “But Jemima’s version of Melissa is powerful enough to say all that looking straight at Frances. “A less self-confident, or more gentle, Melissa wouldn’t have been believable within that conversation happening in the flesh,” he says. These are sentiments that are easier to write literally than they are to convey, and director-producer Lenny Abrahamson says they only attempted the tête-à-tête because of Kirke’s screen presence. Melissa’s whole goal is to show Frances that she’s a better woman, a stronger woman, a more stoic woman, more capable of unconditional love and less egoistical than she is.” “In this scene, everything comes to a head. “Melissa knows that she intimidates Frances, but what Frances doesn’t know is that sometimes she intimidates Melissa,” says Jemima Kirke of her formidable character. The showdown happens in Melissa’s kitchen, with Nick’s wife and lover facing off over - what else? - tea. “It’s a huge moment, and while it works really well as an email within the context of the book, we wanted it to feel as immediate and intense as possible,” says producer Ed Guiney of the decision to change the pivotal conversation into something IRL.
Frances (Alison Oliver) and Melissa ( Jemima Kirke), shown. Frances’ dad leaves a concerning voicemail and Bobbi also has problems with her family she and Frances experience a shift in their friendship.
Conversations with Friends - “Episode 10” – Episode 110 - Frances receives a surprise email from Melissa and the groups’ dynamics are tested in unsuspected ways.
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