Normal People star feeling pressure as adaptation of the hugely popular book airs

Normal People is not a normal book.

The novel, about a couple of young people and their on-off relationship, was a best-seller, won awards and was voted book of the year for 2018 by Waterstones.

But lead actress Daisy Edgar Jones told Sky News’ Backstage podcast she hadn’t actually read it when she auditioned for the part of Marianne.

“I’d known of the book because one of my best friends had bought it for my flatmate for her birthday and was like, ‘This is the best book ever, you have to read it,'” she said.

“So, it was in my flat for ages, and I remember my other friend actually got an audition through for it and was like, ‘This book is so great, I’m really excited about the audition’, and she auditioned and my boyfriend helped herself self-tape for it in my kitchen.

“I remember overhearing and saying, ‘Gosh, that sounds really cool, I’d love to audition for it’, but I just thought that it had missed me.”

But it wasn’t long until she was asked to audition, and it was only after rushing her own self-tape that Edgar-Jones finally picked up the book.

“I think I am quite glad that I didn’t read it until after I’d done my initial tape, because I think I would have just sabotaged myself by accident because I loved it so much,” she said.

“I read the book and it was incredible because I was reading it very much from imagining myself playing Marianne, so I really felt very connected to it. It was quite intense to read it.”

And since that initial read, she’s returned to it again and again.

“And then I’ve now re-read the book probably about 15 times,” she said.

Edgar-Jones knows the book’s popularity means that many readers will have their own expectations of how it should play out on screen.

“I definitely feel pressure, because I know that she’s such a special character to a lot of people, and rightly so. A lot of people will have a very clear idea of who they think she is and how she should be played,” she said.

“So, I definitely want to do it justice and do it right.

“I’m very proud of what we’ve done, but I do also feel a bit nervous about it – I just I don’t want to disappoint people because I think it’s such a beautiful story and people love it, so it’s a mixture of feelings.”

The actress and her fellow lead, Paul Mescal, who plays Connell, are at the heart of the story which focuses on both the emotional and physical aspects of their relationship.

They met for the first time when they auditioned together but Edgar-Jones says they hit it off straight away, and that it probably wouldn’t have worked if they hadn’t.

“I do feel very lucky that Paul and I have such a wonderful friendship, I don’t know how we’d have done any of it if we hated each other,” she said.

“But I think it did feel very natural very quickly when we had the chemistry read-through, that we both had a very clear understanding of who the characters were or at least how we both kind of felt the scene should play.

“I think that by the end of the show we’d spent so much time together doing all of the scenes because it was a long, long shoot, that by the end it just felt very easy, we just kind of slipped into it and now we have a lovely friendship.”

The entire Normal People boxset will be available on BBC Three on Sunday, and will also air on BBC One on Mondays at 9pm.

(c) Sky News 2020: Normal People star feeling pressure as adaptation of the hugely popular book airs