When Normal People arrived on Hulu in 2020, the adaptation of Sally Rooney’s novel made a star of Daisy Edgar-Jones. The actor and avid reader has continued bringing more beloved books to the screen, including Under the Banner of Heaven and Where the Crawdads Sing. In the meantime, there’s Sundance darling Fresh, a comedy with a cannibalistic twist. Edgar-Jones reflects on her whirlwind rise and what chapters may lie ahead.

THE ONLY CHILD of a film editor mother and television executive father, Edgar-Jones fell for acting during a primary school play about Henry VIII. (She played Anne Boleyn.)

AFTER FOUR YEARS in small TV parts, she landed Normal People. Costar Paul Mescal “will always be one of my best, best friends. We were terrified, and we really held each other through that experience. Actually, we just went to Coachella together.”

SHE’LL NEVER FORGET filming Fresh’s more gruesome scenes. “ ‘You want to have a shot of my bare arse on the operating table?’ That was the weirdest professional discussion I’ve ever had.” Reading the zany script, she remembers thinking, This could go really wrong. “But, do you know what? This is my 20s. I want this to be a time for learning.”

HONORING HER character in FX’s Under the Banner of Heaven, a murder victim, was crucial. “Brenda’s family is still alive, and we have an opportunity to share her life.” As pageant queen Brenda, the actor also performs “The Rose” onscreen. “Bette Midler, man. It’s quite a tricky song.”

AS A FAN of Delia Owens’s book, Edgar-Jones braved lightning, floods, gators, and cockroaches filming Crawdads in New Orleans. “I kept thinking, This is the scene in the book where…. And then going, Oh, my God, but we only have 20 minutes to film it.”

UP NEXT, she’s looking for a summer project, adjusting to Hollywood—“It’s surreal to be in a room with people you’ve been watching all your life, you feel like you stepped inside the telly!”—and hoping to get a call from Wes Anderson.

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