// BBC ENTERTAINMENT & ARTS — MODA & SOCIETÀ
How fields of Fermanagh helped Daisy Edgar-Jones prepare for her latest film
Daisy Edgar-Jones stars as Elinor Dashwood in Sense and Sensibility
Actor Daisy Edgar-Jones is no stranger to Ireland, having spent five months in the country filming hit drama Normal People which was released in 2020.
But it was actually fields in County Fermanagh, where some of her family live, that helped her prepare for the role of beloved character Elinor Dashwood in Jane Austen's Sense and Sensibility, some 20 years before.
Her mother is from County Down and Edgar-Jones spent her childhood roaming fields in Northern Ireland.
"I remember big long summers when I was very young in Fermanagh in the fields which definitely helped with my Sense and Sensibility journey because I was doing a lot of the similar wandering around, with not much to do, under the big sky and I love being here," she told BBC News NI.
"I always feel so welcome and the people are incredible."
Sense and Sensibility was published in 1811 and has been adapted many times, but the 1995 adaptation starring Kate Winslet, Emma Thompson, Alan Rickman and Hugh Grant is perhaps the best known.
The Austen novel centres around a relatable story of sisterhood and romance, mainly between Elinor Dashwood (Edgar-Jones) and Marianne (Esmé Creed-Miles).
The Dashwood family is left penniless after the death of their father and the two older sisters are in search of a husband as they are forced to leave their home and move to the modest Barton Cottage.
The film was made by production companies Focus Features and Working Title.