Frank Dillane

If you're not as chronically online as I am, then you might not have heard the drama swirling around a recent interview of Frank Delaney, the actor who plays Mr. Willoughby in the new 2026 version of Sense and Sensibility.

He's done a number of interviews defending Mr. Willoughby, saying how he doesn't think he is a red flag or manipulative, how the women in the story kind of see him for only his money, throwing Colonel Brandon under the bus.

I'm not going to lie.

which has led me to feel like there is a larger conversation to be had around new adaptations.

The softening or complicating of characters and why can't bad characters just be bad anymore? Okay, so I'm not used to reactionary type content here over on the channel, you guys, so we're going to give it a go, see how I get on with it.

But I just want to say first off, absolutely no hate to the actor Frank Delaney here.

I'm going to talk about later how I feel like this is not completely his fault, how a couple of these interviews have gone.

I also feel really bad for the interviewer here.

Hello, everyone, and welcome to the Next Best Picture podcast, where today we are reviewing Sense and Sensibility, and the story is as follows: Three sisters experience love and heartbreak after they're forced to leave their family estate with their widowed mother and move to a humble cottage.

The film is starring Daisy Edgar Jones, Esme Creed-Miles, Katrina Balf, George Mackay, Frank Dillane, Herbert Nordrum, and Fiona Shaw.

It is directed by Georgia Oakley, and it is written by Diana Reid.

And here to join me today for this spoiler-filled podcast review of the new version of Sense and Sensibility, I have Nadia Dalimonte.

Like George Mackay as Edward Ferrars makes complete sense.

That is like something that is a no-brainer.

But Frank Dillane though, as Willoughby-

But which it is perfect casting because he's such a great fuck boy in Urgent, and that is exactly what Willoughby is.

But Esme brings another dimension to Marianne that was just so, so good.

So I'm gonna start this, the things off today talking with Daisy and Esme, and then I'm gonna have two of the men, two of the, the people being suited, if you will, Herbert Nordrum and of course Frank Dillane, who they, Frank plays Willoughby and Herbert plays Colonel Brandon.

And, uh, Herbert said something during this, one of the screenings that really stood out to me that it's the people we fall in love with says more about who we are than the, a person that we're falling in love with in a lot of ways.

And that was so poignant to me because it, it really says a lot about who these women are in this film, you know, and, and their, why they do what they do.

Have a great one.

Take care.

Next, we're gonna move over to Frank and Herbert, their performances as Willoughby, which is who Frank plays, Frank Dillane, and Herbert Norton- Nordrum plays Colonel Brandon.

Uh, uh, they're just perfect.

... like, to nail his accent.

Uh, Frank Dillane as John Willoughby.

Um, very petulant and as discussed in the press, possibly slimy [laughs].

Who could say?

And Esme's character kind of is pulling him apart in sort of dinner parties, saying, where's your passion if you don't have passion? Esme wants passion.

And she finds passion with the Frank Delaney character.

But of course, he heads back off to London and her heart is broken and cleaved in two.

And so she's broken apart, too.

Who play Enlil Dashwood and Edward Ferris.

Frank Delaney and Herbert Nordrum, a.k.a. Willoughby and Colonel Brandon.

Fiona Shaw and Bodhi Ray Breathnach.

I think she's Irish.

girl yeah i don't mind period drama i'm just a bit like yeah i really enjoyed this film I'm currently also in a situation in my life where I just cry at everything I watch I was like in tears at the end of the film and I just thought it was really beautiful I was very engrossed in it and I believed it I was rooting for people and I was not rooting for others and I was doing exactly what it needed to do I loved

it I loved it So we're going to keep talking about our thoughts while we slot in the interviews.

So should we start with Frank Delaney and Herbert Nordstrom,

a.k.a. Marianne's two love interests,

... a time where they had to be dressed respectively, they have to talk this way, or you must go marry a, a, a, a, a mel- wealthy man.

There was also the little story of that sort of arranged marriage, you know, with Josh McKay's character and Mr. Willoughby, Frank Dillane of "The Fear of The Walking Dead." He, he was fantastic.

He, he came across as a charmer, but as the-

Yeah

Maybe that's why I couldn't tell.

Um, but yeah, I thought he was brilliant as well.

And, uh, and as you say, with, uh, Frank Dillane playing, um, John Willoughby, charming enough to like him, but smarmy enough for you to hate him later.

[chuckles]

Catriona Balfe as their mother.

Frank Dillane as the clearly untrustworthy, uh, Willoughby.

Does anyone do posh and untrustworthy-

Untrustworthy

Um, I might complain slightly that the poster is a plot spoiler, but I think that's perfectly fine.

[laughs]

The other thing to say about Frank Dillane, who plays Posh Willoughby, but instantly you know that he's not to be trusted.

No, he's, he's, he's a wrong 'un.