Alison Oliver

2022 - 5 - 13

Post cover — Image courtesy of "harpersbazaar.com"

Alison Oliver on her guilty pleasure, her party trick and what makes ... (harpersbazaar.com)

The breakout star of Conversations with Friends lets Bazaar in on a few secrets...

"Who you are is OK," she says. "I just love that, and I always return to it when I'm auditioning." "You just get to eat a lot of amazing food," she shrugs, laughing. "I think what Sally Rooney's writing does, that makes it so successful, is she's unafraid to write characters that are really flawed and I think that makes them so grounded and makes us relate to them so easily, because they feel like real people. She is unsurprised by how successfully Rooney's novels have thus far been brought to the screen, and how naturally the stories have translated. I just feel so grateful that I got to do something as wonderful and something I was so passionate about already.

Alison Oliver prepares for role in steamy new BBC drama ... (Daily Mail)

Like Normal People's Miss Edgar-Jones, actress Alison Oliver (left), 24, was relatively unknown when she was cast as Frances in the BBC's Conversations with ...

There are several sex scenes between Miss Oliver’s character and Alwyn’s Nick – and Miss Oliver revealed she has even spoken to US singer Miss Swift about those intimate scenes ‘We are all part of the Rooneyverse, so there is a camaraderie,’ she told The Sunday Times. ‘They told me to just enjoy it.’ There are several sex scenes between Miss Oliver’s character and Alwyn’s Nick – and Miss Oliver revealed she has even spoken to US singer Miss Swift about those intimate scenes.

Conversations With Friends Star Alison Oliver: Get to Know Her (Glamour)

"Conversations With Friends" star Alison Oliver talks about being cast in the Sally Rooney series and working with Joe Alwyn, Jemima Kirke, and Sasha Lane.

Complicating matters is a mutual flirtation between Melissa and Bobbi and a secret, passionate affair between Nick and Frances. It’s messy and addicting and the kind of role that has the potential to put Oliver in the same conversation as Daisy Edgar-Jones and Paul Mescal before her (they starred in Netflix’s previous show based on a Rooney book, the successful Normal People). The series follows Frances (Oliver), a 21-year-old college student navigating relationships, life, and career uncertainty. In Conversations With Friends, Hulu’s latest series based on a Sally Rooney book, which is out May 15, Alison Oliver’s character Frances moves quietly through life, surveying every situation and person before making a move.

Conversations With Friends' Alison Oliver Jokes About ... (Us Weekly)

Conversations With Friends' Alison Oliver opens up about 'generous actor' Joe Alwyn and their 'odd couple' Frances and Nick — exclusive video.

I think she is in love with Bobbi and is settled with Bobbi and is happy with Bobbi. But she can still miss Nick and she can still think about a past relationship,” she explained to Us. “And so when that happens, even if she goes to see him, I think it’ll be a very different Frances that goes to see him because of the change she’s been through since their breakup. “It can go so many ways and I don’t know what happens, but … I think since breaking up with Nick, she’s gone through such a change and a realization of so many things and she’s back with Bobbi. And that breakup with Nick was so kind of rocky and there’s still so much closure I think that she feels she needs to have. I think when they’re kind of left together in a social context, they’re kind of having to negotiate. “I think through that amount of rehearsal and kind of talking about it and trusting the person that you’re acting with and all the people around you, you can really come to those scenes and feel kind of secure and safe. Alwyn was “amazing” to work with, according to Oliver. “He’s such a generous actor and I think I learned so much from watching him work and how he kind of approached his role and prepared for it. She really puts you at ease and she kind of starts to talk about what shapes you want to make to tell the story.”

“Conversations with Friends” banks heavily on Alison Oliver (KGET 17)

BAKERSFIELD, Calif. (KGET) — The trip from the printed page to the screen has gone a little backwards for Irish author Sally Rooney.

Alison Oliver & Joe Alwyn Interview: Conversations With Friends (Screen Rant)

Conversations With Friends stars Alison Oliver & Joe Alwyn chat about the pull their characters feel and the various forms of love in the Hulu series.

And I think I can relate to being an actor and kind of the strangeness of that job, and the weirdness of it and the ups and downs of that. While Melissa and Bobbi flirt with each other openly, Nick and Frances embark on an intense secret affair that is surprising to them both. I think what I took away from it and - hopefully, I wonder if other people will too - is that's actually another way of doing it or of living. It's actually much more fluid and open than that, in lots of ways, and I think it's really refreshing to see a story that just presents you with a world where affairs are happening and people are allowing things to continue and having this open dynamic. And you definitely get from the book that she's very analytical, and she likes to put people in boxes a little bit. She's in a low self-worth place, so I think that's what drives it initially - that fascination that he feels the same about her.

Joe Alwyn would love to spend more time in Dublin (RTE.ie)

Joe Alwyn has said he would love to spend more time in Dublin after filming part of the upcoming TV series Conversations with Friends in the city last year.

"I was lucky to work with a lovely dialect coach, the South Dublin accent is weirdly quite Anglicised in some ways," he said. The show was filmed in the midst of strict Covid restrictions last year. It isn’t until later on that you find out where he was at the beginning, which was a place of recovery. "It was just the best thing ever," she enthused. "We just really wanted to honour the book and do it justice. "I loved it as a city and I would love to film there again.

In 'Conversations With Friends,' It's Complicated (The New York Times)

Alison Oliver couldn't help but fangirl last summer, when she got on a Zoom call with Sally Rooney to discuss her leading role in “Conversations with ...

“Their problems are really significant and important to them,” Guiney said, “but in order to kind of empathize with those characters, you need to spend time with them.” When they secured the rights to “Normal People,” on the other hand, the form it would take — a television series at half an hour an episode — was immediately clear to them. On “Normal People,” Rooney co-wrote the first half of the 12 episode series; for “Conversations With Friends,” she was involved in casting, and read over early scripts. It’s this vulnerability of performance that drew the producers to Oliver when they saw her audition tape, Abrahamson said. That was a sentiment echoed by the showrunner. “But she also, as you know, has a very big day job.” She also helped the team answer questions, “where there were things that we were really debating or playing with,” said Abrahamson. (Rooney declined to be interviewed for this article.) “Looking at it from this remove now, it feels a bit unreal,” said Lenny Abrahamson, an executive producer and director on both adaptations. (See: The feverish publicity campaign, and the illicit — and profitable — resale of advance copies of her third book “ Beautiful World, Where Are You” last year.) It’s no surprise then that “Conversations with Friends” — an adaptation of Rooney’s 2017 debut novel — is highly anticipated. (A silver chain worn by one of the characters now has its own Instagram account and fans continue to post and set clips from the show to music online.) “I want this show to go out into the world, get its best airing, and let it be its own thing.”

Alison Oliver

Explore the last week