We fell in love with the first episode of The Walsh Sisters, the adaptation of Marian Keyes’ beloved books, which follow the lives of the five Walsh sisters in Dublin.
Stefanie Preissner is both behind and in front of the camera for the RTÉ series.
Speaking about getting involved, she jokes: “I was a big fan of the book. I remember in 1998, going on holidays with my mum, we went to Majorca like every year. I was probably ten, and I remember being in the pool, specifically looking out at all these deck chairs.
“And all of the women, there was about eight of them there, had the same book on the side of their lounger, and it was Rachel’s Holiday. I remember thinking, ‘Well, we all have Busy at Maths 3 [at school] so maybe when you’re an adult you all have to have the same books too.'”
She jokes: “I think it’s kind of like a rite of passage as an Irish woman, when you get your first boyfriend, first kiss, first job, that you will come in contact with Marion Keyes. I think Rachel’s Holiday, Anybody Out There, Watermelon are kind of like gateway drugs into the Marian world.
“So when I was given the opportunity to pitch for the job to adapt them, I was like yes please. That’s how it all kinda started.”
Of course, there was no convincing on either part to do the show. However, Stefanie admits that Marian didn’t believe that the show had actually been picked up at all.
Recounting a conversation the pair had in the middle of auditions, she admits: “It was like Mount Vesuvius. She was like, ‘This is brilliant! Thank you so much! And what about this? And we could wear this and we could film here, and…’ Then, she allowed herself to be more collaborative.
“She’s so generous and so lovely, but at the same time if something is not right, she’s quite firm about that. Still in her really generous, lovely way, but I think that allows me to trust that when she says she really likes something, she does, because when she doesn’t like it she also tells me.”
Stefanie adapted the series for TV and she also stars as Maggie in the series. However, that was not the original plan.
She tells VIP Magazine with a laugh: “If I had known I was going to be in it, I definitely wouldn’t have given myself the only sex scene in the whole series. I didn’t know I was going to be in it.
“We cast Rachel and Anna and Helen first, and with great ease. And then we were auditioning for Claire, and Claire is almost like a forward evolution of Claire from the books.”
She admits that their casting director suggested she audition for Claire: “Immediately I was like, absolutely not. I’m not Claire. I couldn’t play Claire. I know a lot of actors who can play Claire absolutely amazingly and we will definitely find a Claire. I’m not her.
“As we auditioned for Claire, I was reading Maggie opposite the Claires and Maureen Hughes, the casting director, said to me, ‘You read beautifully for Maggie.’ And I was like, ‘Well, yeah, I wrote it, and I know her really well and I think she’s lovely.’
“Some of the Maggies that we had seen might have been a little bit more stereotypical, like the ‘good girl’. Maureen said I should audition, so I did, and then the videos go to RTÉ and BBC, and all the financiers, and that’s how I came to be Maggie.”
The Walsh Sisters continues on RTÉ One at 9:35pm on Sunday
