In 1995, Emma Thompson adapted Jane Austen’s novel into Ang Lee’s now-iconic film, “Sense and Sensibility.” Thompson also played eldest sister Elinor Dashwood, with a rising Kate Winslet as her sister, Marianne, along with their love interests, Hugh Grant as Edward Ferrars and Alan Rickman as Colonel Brandon.
Now, 31 years later, a new movie adaptation, starring Daisy Edgar-Jones, Esmé Creed-Miles, Caitríona Balfe, George MacKay, Herbert Nordrum, and Fiona Shaw has arrived in theaters in appropriately high style. Diana Reid, author of “Seeing Other People,” wrote this adaptation of Austen’s 1811 novel.
To catch you up, here’s a helpful guide to everything you need to know about this new adaptation. Plus, we take a walk down memory lane to the 1995 version. Plus, director Georgia Oakley tell us what made each actor perfect for their role.
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Marianne Dashwood
Esmé Creed-Miles
Esmé Creed-Miles’ Marianne has a jagged edge to her that tells us that she’s just getting started. Creed-Miles hails from acting royalty. Her mom’s a man-eater in “The Odyssey,” and not in that cute Hall & Oates way. Samantha Morton’s Circe really ate all the men.
Like mother, like daughter, Creed-Miles’ presence on screen is edgy, passionate, and vulnerable. Her Marianne has a darker undertone than previous Mariannes, and she has unique chemistry with both Frank Dillane, who plays Willoughby and Herbert Nordrum, who plays Colonel Brandon. You feel her pain when the former shuns her, and then you can’t look away when the latter gently longs for her. Watching two people fall in love when they don’t know they’re falling in love is timeless. Even in her most desperate moments, you can’t help but be captivated by her messy Marianne.
Oakley shared, “The first time she came to audition for us, she was wearing a ripped band t-shirt. She’d been on tour with her band. It was not what I was expecting at all. She’s able to have a command of Austen’s language that makes it sound like she’s just having a conversation with her mate. We always say that about great Shakespeare: If somebody’s doing it right, you don’t even notice the Shakespearean language. And I think Esme has an extraordinary ability to speak in Austen’s language.
1995: Kate Winslet. Before she almost sank on the Titanic and kicked off one of the greatest debates in film history, “Could Jack have fit on that piece of wood?” A virtually unknown young Kate Winslet played Marianne. It was hard to imagine the Dashwood sisters being anyone but Winslet and Thompson. Until now.
Elinor Dashwood
Daisy Edgar-Jones
Everyone fell in love with Edgar-Jones in “Normal People,” in which she played Marianne, star-crossed love of Paul Mescal’s Connell. And now, she takes over the Emma Thompson role of Elinor. Edgar-Jones’ chemistry with George MacKay, let’s just say they are the King and Queen of Yearning.
Oakley added, “It was amazing having her as our leader. She was guiding all of the other actors, and she has she has this kind of goofiness to her that is really interesting for Elinor because, yes, there’s that restraint, but there’s also there is a humor, and her and Edward in our version, they connect through a type of humor that she doesn’t share with the rest of her family, and that he doesn’t share with the rest of his family. It’s a combination of poise and humor that she brings.”
1995: Emma Thompson not only wrote the screenplay adaptation, but she won an Oscar for it. She played the unforgettable Elinor, who falls hopelessly in love with Hugh Grant’s Edward Ferrars. She and Grant would go on to star in four films together, sometimes as lovers and sometimes as siblings. She also met her husband filming “Sense and Sensibility.” You’ll find out who below.
Mrs. Dashwood
Caitríona Balfe
Hot off her decade long run as Claire Fraser in “Outlander,” Balfe pops on to the big screen with not one, but three movies that are out right now. Not escaping the curse of the corset, this was one of her first post-“Outlander” projects. She was quickly cast as Mrs. Dashwood, widow and mother to Marianne, Elinor, and Margaret.
Balfe confessed in an interview when she first got the role, she thought, “Surely, I’m not the mother.” Director Oakley soon pointed out she intentionally cast Mrs. Dashwood younger, since back in those days, women became mothers very young. In fact, Balfe’s Mrs. Dashwood is almost like the cool, older sister, that also happens to be their mother. We need to see young Mrs. Dashwood’s story. Perhaps a new Austen incarnation for the future: “The Dashwood Diaries.” Give us the goods.
Oakley added, “Oh, Caitríona, she’s just the loveliest person and such a talented actor. She brings a humor and something whimsical about Mrs. Dashwood. It says in the book that everybody falls in love with Mrs. Dashwood when they walk in into the cottage, and Caitríona was kind of the glue that held that family together.”
1995: Gemma Jones played mother Dashwood to Thompson and Winslet, but that’s not her most famous mother role. She played Bridget Jones’ mother as well. Now let’s imagine a “Bridget Jones’ Diary”/Dashwood time travel crossover. Bridget falls back in time and the Dashwoods adopt her.
Edward Ferrars
George MacKay
You’ll fall in love with George MacKay’s Edward Ferrars from the minute he first steps on screen and locks eyes with Edgar-Jones’ Elinor. Their instant yearn and burn fuels the film, and you can’t even be mad at him forgetting to mention he’s already engaged. Oops. His crinkly-eyed, smile wins over every Dashwood. Though Marianne calls him boring and generally is unimpressed with him, until she realizes how deeply smitten her usually unfazed sister is with him.
Oakley confessed, “George is Edward. We nicknamed Daisy and George head boy and head girl because they just had this very conscientious way of working, and they would always be doing something. They’d be sat on a fire escape running lines for like the scene that was coming up in two weeks.” Similar to his predecessor Grant, “Sense and Sensibility” should catapult MacKay into the romantic comedy lead for the foreseeable future.
1995: Hugh Grant plays the bumbling yet charming Ferrars, which would become his brand over the next 20 years. From “Four Weddings and a Funeral” to “Bridget Jones’ Diary” to “Two Weeks Notice,” Grant’s adorable romantic bumbler has won over Julia Roberts, Sandra Bullock, and many more on screen. But never forget, he once melted Emma Thompson’s Dashwood-en heart.
John Willoughby
Frank Dillane
Dillane’s Willoughby, like Creed-Miles’ Marianne, has more of a darkness lurking beneath. But he and Creed-Miles’ chemistry will hook you, just like it did with every Dashwood dame from the moment he scoops her up on that beach. So, when he courts, swoons, and ultimately ghosts Marianne, you will feel a mild rage toward him, and satisfaction when Colonel Brandon tosses him on out on his two-timing tucchus. Dillane played 16-year-old Tom Riddle in “Harry Potter,” and Nick Clark in “Fear of the Walking Dead.”
1995: Greg Wise’s Willoughby was cute to boot, and then gave Winslet’s Marianne the boot. But you know what, Wise got the girl in real life: He ended up with on-screen Elinor! As in, he’s Mr. Emma Thompson! Way to go Willoughby. Where there’s a Willoughby there’s way. Wise move. All puns intended.
Colonel Brandon
Herbert Nordrum
Nordrum plays Colonel Brandon as a sad, hopeless yet smoldering sleeper suitor who can’t take his eyes off of Marianne. On the other hand, Marianne goes out of her way to insult him for not being passionate about anything. Oh, how wrong she is. He spends most of the film being in love with her from afar, waiting patiently until she gets over her case of the Willoughby.
Oakley revealed that she actually didn’t think Nordrum was right for the role at first, because he’s so funny. “He’s just such a good-natured person,” she said. “There’s something kind of mysterious about him in the way that I had always read Brandon. He has a natural empathy. He sees the good in everybody. He’s a very generous actor.”
1995: Alan Rickman. He’s been Hans Gruber, Professor Snape, the man who cheated on Emma Thompson in one of the most re-watched Christmas movies of all-time, “Love Actually.” In “Sense and Sensibility,” he plays the seemingly boring Brandon, who locked onto Marianne long before she even remembered he was in the room. When re-watching this version, it will be hard not to hear hints of Hans Gruber. Rickman might be gone, but thankfully he lives on in every character of his we’re haunted by, scared of, and in this case, utterly and subtly charmed by.
Mrs. Jennings
Fiona Shaw
Fiona Shaw quite simply lights up every single scene she is in. She has chemistry with everyone, but most especially her co-star, the pug. Oakley revealed in an interview how she went the extra mile with her canine scene partner in one particular scene, and how it gloriously backfired. The scene with Shaw, Edgar-Jones, Balfe, and Creed-Miles watching Willoughby and Colonel Brandon fighting is one of funniest scenes in the entire film. Peak ensemble comedy.
1995: Elizabeth Spriggs won a BAFTA for her run as Mrs. Jennings.
John Dashwood
Tom Brooke
Tom Brooke brings awkward to a new hilarious level as Mrs. Dashwood’s stepson who inherits their house and fortune leaving them all penniless. His wife, Fanny, convinces him not to give them anything, even though it was his father’s dying wish. Without Fanny, John might actually have been a good brother and stepson, but “happy wife, happy life” was more his style, as he waved “ta-ta” to his half-sisters and stepmother. Brooke is currently starring in “Slow Horses.”
1995: James Fleet plays the weak Dashwood heir with a cluelessness that almost makes him endearing. Almost. Fleet appeared with Hugh Grant as Tom in “Four Weddings and a Funeral.”
Fanny Dashwood
Stacy Martin
Oh, Fanny. The Dashwood villain flies in on her little broom when the OG Mr. Dashwood dies. Martin brings a hilariously evil energy to the wife who can’t wait to kick her husband’s “half” family to the curb. When Mrs. Dashwood and her daughters move into their new smaller cottage, Mrs. Dashwood says, “Well, at least Fanny doesn’t live here.” Indeed. Martin plays her perfectly. Hard to believe Fanny and Edward came from the same family, as one is the blonde devil and the other is the sweetest man who just happened to forget to mention he’s engaged.
1995: Harriet Walter’s Fanny Dashwood is delightfully terrible. Walter is best known for her theater career with the Royal Shakespeare Company. She can now be seen on “Silo” with Rebecca Ferguson.
Margaret Dashwood
Bodhi Rae Breathnach
Breathnach plays the youngest Dashwood daughter, Margaret. Breathnach’s film debut was as William Shakespeare’s eldest daughter Susannah in Chloe Zhao’s “Hamnet.” As Margaret, Breathnach provides unfiltered, childlike candor with a sense of humor to boot. Young Dashwood often drops bangers like, “He won’t visit, that’s just what men say.” But she’s an Elinor and Edward stan from the very beginning.
1995: Emilie Francois played Margaret and went on to be a journalist, filmmaker, and writer.
“Sense and Sensibility” is in theaters now.