Mrs. Dashwood

And this is a great next project after Outlander.

She plays, you know, Mrs. Dashwood in a way that is so different from other Mrs. Dashwoods.

This film is so different from so many other Sense and Sensibility adaptations.

So I really think you're gonna enjoy today's episode of the podcast.

But a- and sometimes it can mean that you do feel a, a little sense of distance.

That can be really entertaining and it, and it, and it is.

But for me, I was so excited by Georgia's want to dissolve that kind of distance and, and create mu- a much more intimate, raw version of the Dashwoods.

And every decision she made was, was in f- was in, you know, um, support of that.

You are the loveliest girls I ever set eyes on.

Can you not get them married, Mrs. Dashwood?

Marianne and Elinor, as different as two sisters can be.

Do you love him?

And Katrina, for you, I, I was just mentioning I loved your performance in Belfast.

It's, like, one of my favorites from that year, but I'm curious for you when you stepped on set, because Mrs. Dashwood is come, sometimes just a comic character, but I feel like you added a lot of depth to her this time around especially.

Yeah, I mean, I think that's what Georgia, it was one of the first things she said to me.

She didn't want her to seem silly.

Plus...

Miss Dashwood, perhaps we ought to dance.

It is a ball, after all.

Now, the latest adaptation of Jane Austen's Sense and Sensibility has hit the big screen.

You never told him how you feel.

His mother desires a grand match.

Miss Dashwood, perhaps we ought to dance.

It is a ball after all.

And it captures that kind of... private sanctuary that I imagine Jane and Cassandra built for each other, you know, living with one another until Jane's death.

We need to talk about the yearning in the new Sense and Sensibility and specifically by Edward Ferris for Eleanor Dashwood in a way that we have never seen before, in my opinion.

Gone are the days of the foppish sensibility.

stuttering, hesitant Edward Ferris.

But can we bring back more subtlety to romance, please? Otherwise, George McKay, welcome to being our new period drama boyfriend.

You can go stand in line beside Donald Finn for our 2026 Austin crushes.

Now, this adaptation gives us the wildest version of Marianne Dashwood we have ever seen on screen.

She's not merely an overly enthusiastic or hopelessly naive teenager who is in love with rom-coms.

Well, that's a very interesting one, isn't it? Because, again, the thing I love about Sense and Sensibility, so much of it I love, but one of the earliest things aspects of the novel.

When the Dashwoods have to move, and they have to move from their lovely estate, they're absolutely granted, they have known wealth and great privilege.

But then Mrs. Dashwood has to deal with the fact that they have to move to this cottage in Devon, owned by Sir Thomas Middleton on the Barton estate.

So one of her cousins... grants her this cottage to live in.

And I think that definitely influenced the Ang Lee, Emma Thompson interpretation of Sense and Sensibility.

And that Barton Cottage is an 18th century stone cottage.

So, of course, as lived in by the Dashwoods, it would look a lot newer than it does on screen because, of course, it's a very aged period house now.

But back in Austin's day, it would have been quite a new build.

Marianne's being kinder to Colonel Brandon because of this but she's still dealing with some heartbreak obviously.

The Dashwood girls want to go home but both of them think that them staying is for the sister.

They're unaware that the other wants to just go home.

Well no Eleanor knows Marianne wants to go home but thinks it's better for her if she stays.

Oh,

so rough.

Mrs Dashwood thinks that Marianne should stay in London because if she goes to Barton, everything will remind her of Willoughby.

She's not wrong.

We had references from paintings and references from contemporary photography.

There was a lot of discussion about the way that characters interact on screen, the kind of intimacy and tenderness that I wanted these sisters, particularly all the family of the Dashwoods to show and for it not to feel too buttoned up and kind of... at arm's length, let's say.

And so, yeah, I worked with a lot of contemporary references as well as period references.

And I was drawn to heads of department who also brought those kinds of influences.