CONVERSATIONS WITH FRIENDS on is now available on Amazon Prime. Based on Sally Rooney’s best selling book, we follow 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. Starring Alison Oliver, Joe Alwyn, Sasha Lane and Jemima Kirke.
It seems Billie Jean King really did say, “Pressure is a privilege.” The team behind the imminent adaptation of Sally Rooney’s CONVERSATIONS WITH FRIENDS have reason to ponder the tennis legend’s durable observation. NORMAL PEOPLE, broadcast in the spring of 2020, wasn’t any sort of everyday hit. It was a sensation. That take on Sally Rooney’s second novel ended up as the defining cultural artefact of the first Covid lockdown. Paul Mescal and Daisy Edgar Jones, breakout stars of the series, are now fronting films at Sundance and Cannes. Rooney’s status as voice of a generation was further elevated. One could forgive Lenny Abrahamson, director and executive producer of both series, for feeling a few jitters.
Alison Oliver absolutely loved NORMAL PEOPLE. The TV adaptation of Sally Rooney’s sophomore novel with its emotionally earnest performances and charged sexual energy felt like a “revelation” to the twenty-something actor, who agrees that the hit series was much more than just the sum of its parts. Given the meteoric success of its predecessor, the bar is already set quite high for the new Element Pictures’ production. While CONVERSATIONS WITH FRIENDS is indeed a “cousin, that shares an aesthetic tone” with NORMAL PEOPLE, it is an entirely separate story, says Oliver.