Irish actress, Alison Oliver has revealed how she felt when she discovered she had been cast in the upcoming adaptation of Sally Rooney’s first novel, Conversations with Friends. Alison will be playing the lead role of Frances in the series which will air on BBC and RTÉ very soon.
Speaking with EVOKE Alison shared that she wasn’t actually able to tell anyone at first when got the call to say she had the part; “But when I did find out, I was just completely shocked and I remember I sat in my bedroom for like two hours and I just stared at the wall and I didn’t know what to do because I don’t think I was allowed to say anything yet. I think I just got Domino’s and watched TV.”
Continuing she added; “I didn’t know what to do. I was just like, “What do I do with this information?” It really was just so surreal and mad. Yeah, it was just mad!”
The Cork actress also shared that she was already a big fan of Irish writer, Sally Rooney’s work and that she had previously read Normal People before a friend gave her Conversations with Friends; “I’d already read Normal People and so I was familiar with Sally and her writing and just absolutely loved it.”
“Because her writing is so intimate and sensitive and so characterful, I felt so attached to the book but I also felt like I really knew the people in the book… I just could imagine them, I had such a strong kind of imagination of who these four characters were.”
She went on to say; “So then kind of getting an audition tape in and doing that whole process was so kind of surreal because in my head I was like, “Oh, these are real people.”’
The show has been filmed in Dublin and Belfast over the past 12 months and we can expect to see it hit our television’s in 2022. As well as Cork actress, Alison Oliver as protagonist, Frances the show will also feature Sasha Lane from American Honey and The Miseducation of Cameron Post who will star as Bobbi. Joe Alwyn from The Favourite will be playing the role of Nick and Jemima Kirke from Sex Education and Girls who will play Melissa.
The story follows Frances, a 21-year-old college student, as she navigates a series of relationships that force her to confront her own vulnerabilities for the first time.
We can expect it to hit screens in May, 2022.
