“It’s a modern coming-of-age love story about, can you love more than one person?”
When Frances and Nick start falling for each other, things get even more complicated.
ENTERTAINMENT WEEKLY: Were you aware of this book before you took this role?
Joe Alwyn on ‘Conversations with Friends’.Enda Bowe/Hulu
JOE ALWYN:I was aware of the book.
I’d read it when it came out.
And I’d readNormal Peopletoo.
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I felt very lucky to be part of that world.
When a character has so little dialogue, does that make your job harder?
What was the experience like of getting into Nick’s headspace?
Yeah, he’s definitely one of the quieter characters [I’ve played].
He’s a bit like Frances, I think.
Particularly at the beginning, he’s very aloof and hard to read.
And for Bobbi, that’s just him being boring.
They’re both quite similar characters in some ways.
They’re both used to being next to quite outspoken people.
I really enjoyed playing him.
No, he doesn’t come in and do a song and dance.
But I think that’s quite accurate.
I think lots of actors or people in that industry are maybe more on the introverted side.
What was that process like?
I didn’t really speak to Sally.
I spoke to [director] Lenny [Abrahamson] a lot.
He was very collaborative from the beginning.
And so it was nice to feel embedded in it from the beginning.
Did you and Alison do any jot down of chemistry read?
We actually didn’t.
She auditioned separately and I did some tapes and then I think we were cast around the same time.
We started speaking pretty soon after that.
But because it was lockdown, we were all stuck on the old Zoom.
But we mainly just got to know each other a bit, which was nice.
Could you even let yourself think about that?
I tried not to think about it in that way.
I loved it as well.
Lenny talks aboutConversations With Friendslike it’s a cousin ofNormal People.
I think that there are definitely themes that are the same.
Internally and aesthetically, they belong in the same world.
But I do think this is very much its own story and its own thing.
And it couldn’t be because it’s a completely different book.
So I think that separation gives it a nice breathing space, which helps.
What do you feel like is ultimately the message of this show, of this story?
I think it’s a few things.
It’s a coming-of-age story for Frances.
It really is her story.
And I think within that, it’s a very modern love story in some ways.
It’s essentially asking: Can you love more than one person?
Can we love in more ways than just that?
And if we can, where does that leave these constructs?
And is there a way to make that work?
So I guess it’s a modern coming-of-age love story about, can you love more than one person?
One of the beauties of television is the length with which you get to live with a character.
This is, for you, the longest you’ve ever lived with a single character, right?
And I think the 12-episode, half-hour format really works in Sally Rooney world.
You’re often just spending time with people in a room and it’s quite quiet in that way.
There aren’t huge cliffhangers.
And for whatever reason, it fits well in that little pocket of time.
So it seems like a nice format for it.
What’s your takeaway from spending that much time with Nick?
How does it differ from, say, making a movie?
It’s really lovely and a luxury.
The bonds that you form with people making it is really special.
I really liked that we had a solid chunk of time on it.
This interview has been edited and condensed for length and clarity.
Conversations With Friendsis out now on Hulu.
