Daisy Edgar-Jones is sitting across from me in the garden of the hip rooftop hotel she’s staying at in downtown Los Angeles. She looks effortlessly chic, but she is trying to convince me otherwise. “When I pack for L.A., I try to pack my coolest outfits. It’s a lot of pressure! I wish I was this cool regularly,” the British actress admits when I compliment the white Anine Bing shirt she’s wearing with black high-rise, wide-leg jeans and Wales Bonner x Adidas sneakers.
Today’s ensemble—perfected by a sprinkling of gold jewelry and her signature Gucci handbag (she is a brand ambassador)—is the result of her playing around on Pinterest. “It’s changed my life. I find an outfit on there and go, ‘What do I have in my wardrobe that could maybe re-create this?!'” she says. While she could have simply rolled out of her hotel room in her sweatpants and no makeup for our mid-morning interview, there is something endearing about Edgar-Jones, 26, going through the effort of putting an outfit together and admitting to it. It makes me warm to her immediately.
But maybe she has good reason. Edgar-Jones was practically unknown when the TV series Normal People—the absorbing, universally acclaimed adaptation of Irish author Sally Rooney’s 2018 novel—was released and subsequently viewed 62 million times in 2020. “The next day, I was on the front of a newspaper, papped for the first time,” she recalls of her overnight fame. “I remember going, ‘What?! That’s me! I wish I’d worn a better outfit.'” This was at the height of the COVID-19 pandemic, so her and co-star Paul Mescal’s press appearances were all conducted over Zoom. “I was like, ‘Yeah, I’ll just wear this old, mangy shirt I’ve had for five years,'” she cringes, taking a sip of her espresso cacao smoothie. “If I’d known it was going to live on the internet forever… I just had no concept!”
Edgar-Jones has enjoyed more success in the last four years than some actors do in their entire careers. Her heartbreakingly vulnerable performance as Marianne to Mescal’s Connell earned her a Golden Globe nomination and paved the way for starring roles in a flurry of high-profile projects, including horror thriller Fresh (produced by Adam McKay), the Hello Sunshine–produced adaptation of Delia Owens’s best seller Where the Crawdads Sing, and Dustin Lance Black’s Under the Banner of Heaven, which earned her a second Golden Globe nomination.
Such a meteoric rise has made Edgar-Jones a rare phenomenon. She’s a household name who means something to people but who doesn’t know it herself. When I tell friends I’m interviewing her, her name elicits the sort of response usually reserved for someone who’s been around for as long as, say, Beyoncé—”OMG, she’s so cool. Bangs icon!” (More on those bangs later.) Edgar-Jones is somebody who can carry an entire blockbuster—as she does with her latest release Twisters, the big-budget storm-chasing action movie of the summer—and is still pinching themselves over the fact that they got the part.
It’s a couple of days before her Who What Wear photo shoot when we meet, and if Edgar-Jones is excited about promoting the much-anticipated standalone sequel to the 1996 cult classic Twister, she is equally buzzed about her befitting “Daisy goes West!” cover story. “Sometimes in photo shoots, I can feel a little shy,” she admits. “I’m not a model, and I never was someone who took photos of themselves—I hated getting my school photo taken!—but I’m starting to enjoy it more.” This is especially true when it’s a character or theme she can get behind. “My granddad was a huge country music fan,” she enthuses. “I watched a lot of Westerns and listened to a lot of country music as a kid, so this whole world is very fun for me.”
That and the “idea of being in a massive classic disaster movie” were obvious incentives for Edgar-Jones wanting to be a part of Twisters, but the real clincher was being directed by Lee Isaac Chung, who had long been on her wish list of directors she hoped to work with one day. “His films [including the 2020 semi-autobiographical Golden Globe–winning Minari] are very quiet and character driven but have a respect and love of the natural world,” she explains. “The idea of him tackling this felt really exciting and interesting.”
In January 2023, while on the set of On Swift Horses (a forthcoming historical drama in which she stars opposite Jacob Elordi), Edgar-Jones wrote Chung a letter telling him as much. The feeling was mutual. There was no audition required to win her the part of Kate Carter, a former storm chaser haunted by a devastating encounter with a tornado as a college student. All it took was a meeting of minds. “I think it was on the second or third time we met. Isaac was talking, and in his lovely, gentle way, [he] just went, ‘I’d love for you to do it,'” recalls Edgar-Jones. “I went home and called my agent, and I was like, ‘I think he just offered it to me?!'”
Stepping out of their respective comfort zones to enter the high-stakes world of a Hollywood blockbuster franchise, it’s no wonder the pair quickly bonded. “[He wants] to do everything, and I was very inspired by that,” she says. “I tend to prefer things that are character driven and quite insular, but I also want to feel like I can play in every sandbox and look back at a career and go, ‘Look at all the random, cool stuff I’ve done!'”
Edgar-Jones can add running lessons to the list of cool stuff she’s done. Her personal trainer Matt Bevan, who worked with Lily James on Pam & Tommy and Daisy Ridley on Star Wars, hired a professional running teacher to prepare her for running away from tornados. “I have a bit of a weird run,” she confesses. “It’s something I was teased about at school. My PE teacher said I was born to hurdle because my legs flick out quite a bit.” I tell her I’m picturing that scene in Friends when Rachel goes running with Phoebe and discovers she has a run “that’s a cross between Kermit the Frog and the Six Million Dollar Man.” “That’s me!” she laughs. “I’ll never be able to play Lara Croft; it’s not in my gambit. There is a lot of running in this, so I was like, ‘I need to look cool.'”
By May 2023—the height of tornado season, no less—Edgar-Jones was in Oklahoma filming with a stellar ensemble cast, including Kiernan Shipka, Hamilton star Anthony Ramos, and man of the moment Glen Powell. “We’d be re-creating wind and rain, and then actual wind and rain and lightning would come in, and we’d have to shut down filming,” she reveals. I ask her if there were any particularly gnarly moments, and she leans over to show me a video on her iPhone. “We were in the middle of filming this scene where me and Glen are sitting on top of a truck eating sandwiches and looking up at the sky,” she explains. “We must have looked like really bad storm chasers because there was this massive mesocyclone cloud forming behind us!” Filming was shut down that day, as the cloud became a tornado. But Powell and Edgar-Jones were undeterred. In fact, as recently as last month, the pair went storm chasing for real with some of the other cast members and one of the consultants on the film. “It was like in the movie. The consultant was like [adopts Midwestern accent], ‘There’s a crazy storm coming in. Come check it out!'” she says.
At the heart of Twisters is a fun, “opposites attract” dynamic between Kate and Tyler (Powell), a reckless social media–famous storm chaser. “Tyler’s gregarious, childlike way of experiencing the chase is something Kate used to have in spades,” explains Edgar-Jones. “I love that he’s able to find that in her again.” What about Edgar-Jones’s own dynamic with Powell? “He’s so great,” she nods. “He is genuinely such a nice person and has a great sense of humor.”
When it comes to male co-stars, Edgar-Jones has had her pick of Hollywood’s most sought-after men, from Elordi (On Swift Horses) to Sebastian Stan (Fresh). But no pairing has inspired the level of interest as her and Mescal thanks to the popularity of Normal People. Recently, the former co-stars—whose tender portrayal of young lovers who just can’t seem to make it work resonated around the world during the pandemic—managed to break the internet with a selfie and the caption, “We’ve got some news to share!! Watch this space.” We’re all eagerly awaiting a second season, aren’t we? But the only news Edgar-Jones and Mescal had to share was that they were, well, reuniting for a charity screening of Normal People in London…
“Oops!” Edgar-Jones responds when I bring it up. “It really set off a storm. Pardon the pun.” She finds it remarkable that a selfie of the two of them would cause such excitement from fans, who are still heavily invested in their characters’ love story four years after the show was released. “I think I’m still processing it, really,” she says softly. “It changed my life.”
Sudden fame can be overwhelming and difficult to navigate. Mescal became “the internet’s boyfriend,” while Edgar-Jones inspired copycat haircuts. This was baffling for the actress, as the bangs weren’t even her signature style. “I got my bangs as the result of not getting a part in Poldark! It was like a break-up haircut,” she quips. “I really do think it got me [the part of] Marianne because I looked a bit like Sally Rooney.” Edgar-Jones and “completely down-to-earth” Mescal have stuck together throughout. “It’s nice to have someone who really gets it,” she says. “It’s hilarious because people are always sending me articles of ‘Will they reunite?’ I’m like, ‘How many times can we reunite?!’ We actually just hang out all the time. He’s one of my best friends.” A couple of months ago, they did, in fact, reunite at the Gucci cruise 2025 show in London. A clip of them exchanging glances back and forth on the front row went viral because of its rom-com vibes and because Solange Knowles is sitting between them, blissfully unaware. “That was hilarious. Poor Solange,” recalls Edgar-Jones. “She is one of my favorite artists ever, so I don’t know why he was staring at me. I’m like, ‘Hi, mate!’ And everyone is like, ‘What?!’ It’s so funny.”
After Normal People, Edgar-Jones—who grew up in North London and attended the National Youth Theatre before winning her first substantial role at 17 in popular British comedy drama Cold Feet—found herself in serious demand. In 2021, she filmed Fresh in Vancouver, Where the Crawdads Sing in New Orleans, and Under the Banner of Heaven in Calgary back-to-back. For the most seasoned actor, that would be a bit much, and Edgar-Jones spent just 10 days at home in London that entire year. Despite or perhaps because of this, she promptly bought her own apartment 10 minutes from her parents’ house in Muswell Hill, where she grew up an only child. “I was on my own a lot [that year], and I realized that the thing I missed the most was my family and friends,” she explains. “I really wanted to have solid roots.”
For Edgar-Jones, “friends are like family.” She has a tight friendship group from Normal People that, in addition to Mescal, includes Fionn O’Shea and India Mullen. She counts her Cold Feet co-stars Ella Hunt and Sylvie Briggs as best friends. “They really help me stay grounded,” she explains. “They’re such kind friends, so seeing them is the best thing for me.” She is also close to Bridgerton star Phoebe Dynevor. “She’s a really good friend of mine,” she says. I’m seeing her tonight actually.” Sometimes, they work out together, and Edgar-Jones is currently reading a book (Conversations on Love by Natasha Lunn) Dynevor gave her. “She was like, ‘I think you’d really like this.’ I’m such a romantic, so anything that explores love, I’m like, ‘Yes,’ and I gobble it up,” she adds.
Edgar-Jones, who is currently dating photographer Pip (Ben Seed), continues to make new friends wherever she goes. It’s simply in her nature. “Every job I’ve done, I’ve collected a gem of a friend,” she says. “I try to be the person who is like, ‘I’m going to connect us all.’ Hosting is my favorite thing. I like curating the night. I love arranging different groups of friends to hang out and go to the pub.” She also enjoys music festivals and gigs. She recently went to see The Japanese House at iconic Camden venue The Roundhouse. “I’m a big live-music fan. I’m going to Glastonbury soon, so I’m so excited,” she says. She adds, as she is wont to do, “Are you gonna come?”
You don’t have to be a psychologist to make the link between being an only child and longing to connect with other people. “In some ways, it’s an amazing skill you have to learn. I had long stretches of childhood playing on my own in my own imaginary world,” she recalls. “You have to become very adept at making new connections quickly. Otherwise, you’ll just be playing on your own.” Hers was an idyllic-sounding childhood spent between London; Northern Ireland, where her mother, a former drama film editor, is from; and Scotland, where her father, the current head of entertainment for Sky, was born. “My dad is such a source of inspiration,” she says of her father, who was an executive producer on the British version of groundbreaking reality show Big Brother in the early 2000s. “If I ever meet anyone he’s ever worked with, they always say, ‘Your dad is the nicest man in telly.’ He’s such a generous leader. You get the best out of people that way.”
It’s made her think about her own sense of responsibility now that she’s, more often than not, number one on the call sheet. “Now, I’ve had the luck of being able to play the lead. I think you do set the example with your behavior and how you navigate set,” she ponders. “It’s a nice goal to create an environment where people feel encouraged, and it’s a joyful rather than stressful experience.”
Watch On
I’m curious how the last four years and the level of success she has achieved have impacted Edgar-Jones’s future ambitions. She thinks carefully. “I’m really hungry to keep expanding and learning and getting better, but I’m also in a position, which I never dreamt I could be, where I have some semblance of choice,” she explains. “I’m becoming a lot more aligned with what I truly want to do and what fills my cup.”
Theater is something she is keen to explore alongside developing her own projects and continuing to seek out the filmmakers, like Chung, who most interest her. As Edgar-Jones has tackled an impressive number of complicated, isolated characters on some pretty dark journeys (Kate being no exception), I wonder if she is keen to try something completely different. “I’d love to play someone really cheerful for my nervous system,” she laughs. “I need to be in a light comedy. I’d love to do that. One of the joys of filmmaking is your ability to display an inner life on-screen. As an actor, I’m quite detailed. Maybe that’s why those characters tend to come my way, but I definitely want to expand on what I can do.”
Perhaps the biggest luxury success has afforded Edgar-Jones is the ability to turn down parts. “At the moment, I’m saying no to quite a lot of stuff, which is great, but also, you go, ‘Argh!'” she says. “I know how much you give to working on something, so I think I’m just really holding out for the thing that makes me go, ‘That’s it.'”
On the horizon is reuniting with Under the Banner of Heaven co-star Andrew Garfield for Voyagers, a space-age love story about the astronomer Carl Sagan. The film is still in development, but Edgar-Jones is attached to play Garfield’s love interest. “He’s so lovely,” she tells me. “We were on set in Calgary, and we rode electric scooters all over, and I remember him scooting around and people going, ‘Is that Spiderman?!’ He just lived his life. He’s so normal.” Edgar-Jones didn’t know it at the time, but it would be one of those moments that would stick in her mind—one of the more valuable lessons, like the gems of friends, she has carried with her from job to job. “You realize that, in part, it’s an attitude,” she muses. “For certain people, it’s harder, and they have less choice, but certainly for me, I do think the more you’re just normal, the more other people are too.”
After 90 minutes, we part ways with a warm hug. She has a fitting with her stylist Dani Michelle, who also works with Hailey Bieber and Kendall Jenner, to get to next—hence her thoughtfully curated outfit of the day. “I always try to dress as fashionably as possible for meeting Dani,” she admits. So far, so normal. Daisy Edgar-Jones, please don’t ever change.
(Image credit: Amber Asaly)
Photographer: Amber Asaly
Stylist: Lauren Eggertsen
Hairstylist: Cervando Maldonado
Makeup Artist: Jo Baker at Forward Artists
Manicurist: Queenie Nguyen
Creative Director: Alexa Wiley
Executive Director of Entertainment: Jessica Baker
Director of Video: Samuel Schultz
DP: Samuel Miron
AC: Marques Mallare
Film Operator: Brook Lee Karner
Producer: Kellie Scott
Copy Editor: Jaree Campbell
