Sally Rooney is one of the most recognizable popular millennial authors. In 2020, her novel Normal People was adapted to television to critical acclaim. Following the success of that series, her breakout novel Conversations with Friends is now being adapted into a 12-part miniseries produced by Element Pictures.
Featuring newcomer Alison Oliver as well as Sasha Lane, Joe Alwyn, and Jemima Kirke, Conversations with Friends follows four individuals in a complicated maze of past and present relationships. The series is now set to release on Hulu and BBC 3. Here's everything you need to know about this brand-new novel adaptation.
Watch the Conversations with Friends Trailer
The trailer for the Hulu series, released in April 2022, opens with a still shot of a serene lake. In the background, you can spot fog-covered mountains in the distance. Frances (Alison Oliver) and Bobbi (Sasha Lane) are sitting poolside on two cloth pool chairs having a conversation. Frances asks ”would it depress you to sleep with someone who loves someone else?” to which Bobbi responds “Not if they love me too.” We watch as the two exes-turned-friends become entangled in a four-headed web of relationships between them and married couple Nick (Joe Alwyn) and Melissa Conway (Jemima Kirke).
The trailer features a new song from Phoebe Bridgers entitled "Sidelines." The moody song sets the tone for the melancholic romance of the trailer. Bridgers has close ties to the “Rooneyverse”: she has professed her love of 2020’s Normal People and is currently dating actor Paul Mescal, whose breakout role was portraying Normal People’s Connell. There's also a teaser trailer for the series, released on February 8, 2022, which you can check out below:
When Is the Release Date of Conversations with Friends?
The 12-part miniseries is scheduled to premiere on BBC Three and Hulu on Sunday, May 15, 2022. It will then premiere on RTÉ One in Ireland on Wednesday, May 18.
Who Is in the Cast of Conversations with Friends?
The show features newcomer Alison Oliver in the role of Frances. Frances, who is the narrator of the novel, embarks on an affair with married actor Nick Conway (Joe Alwyn). Oliver is an Irish actress who is an alumnus of the Lir National Academy of Dramatic Art, graduating in 2020. In an interview with Elle Magazine, Oliver shared her admiration for Sally Rooney’s work, and her initial feelings about the role saying, “I knew Sally’s work, and I really admired it. I loved the adaptation of Normal People as well. So when I heard they were doing this, it was something I would dream to be a part of.”
The casting of Oliver is in a similar vein to the casting of at-the-time relatively unknown actors Paul Mescal and Daisy Edgar-Jones for Rooney’s Normal People, which propelled them into their current fame. This role could have a similar impact on Oliver’s rep within the industry moving forward.
Arguably the most recognizable star in the cast, Jemima Kirke will play Melissa Conway, wife of Joe Alwyn’s Nick Conway, whose affair with Bobbi (Sasha Lane) is part of a larger web of relationships, love, and affairs that the four leads become entangled in. Kirke’s most iconic role is probably as Jessa Johansson in Lena Dunham’s iconic depiction of millennial ennui Girls. Fans might also recognize her from her recent role in Netflix’s Sex Education as Headmistress Haddon.
Joe Alwyn (The Last Letter From Your Lover) and Sasha Lane (American Honey) play the other feature points within this entanglement of relationships. Lane plays Frances’ ex-girlfriend-turned-friend Bobbi Connolly, who becomes involved with Nick’s wife Melissa. Meanwhile, Alwyn’s aloof yet misunderstood Nick Conway is struggling in his marriage to Melissa, and falling in love with the intriguing Frances. Taylor Swift fans would recognize Alwyn as the pop star's current boyfriend.
When and Where Was Conversations with Friends Filmed?
Principal photography for Convesations with Friends began in April 2021. It was filmed in various locations, including in Northern Ireland, the Republic, and abroad, with cast and crew members being spotted on set in Bray, County Wicklow in July 2021.
What Is the Background of Conversations with Friends?
Conversations with Friends has been developed by Element Pictures for BBC Three and Hulu, in association with Irish television and radio broadcaster RTÉ. The series was announced in February 2020, and is based on the 2017 novel of the same name by Irish author Sally Rooney.
Rooney’s debut novel, Conversations with Friends was released when the writer was just 26 and catapulted her into the forefront of millennial writers internationally. Although Conversations with Friends was the author’s debut novel, the series will be the second adaptation of Rooney’s work after 2020’s critically-acclaimed Normal People. Normal People director Lenny Abrahamson and co-writer Alice Birch are both back for Conversations with Friends. In addition, Mark O'Halloran, Meadhbh McHugh, and Susan Soon He Stanton are listed as writers, with Leanne Welham also directing.
What Is the Plot of Conversations with Friends?
Closely following the plot of Sally Rooney’s debut novel by the same name, Conversations with Friends accompanies Trinity College student Frances through a web of past and present relationships. When she and her ex-girlfriend / best friend Bobbi encounter older married couple Nick and Melisa Conway, they both embark on coinciding affairs with the couple.
This four-headed beast of a relationship forces the characters to reflect on their own past relationships and personal traumas in order to move forward and eventually find some form of healing. According to an interview with the Hollywood Reporter, director Lenny Abrahamson said “Conversations is really a coming-of-age story,” before continuing “Centering on Frances, who is trying to figure herself out … it’s prepared to challenge the viewer’s own sense of what is good or right in various situations.”
Expect a sexy drama series with plenty of emotional turmoil as the web of lies and deception woven by these four people come to a head. And if you'd like to know more, here's the official synopsis:
Conversations with Friends follows 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. Frances is observant, cerebral and sharp. Her ex-girlfriend, now best friend, Bobbi is self-assured, outspoken and compelling. Though they broke up three years ago, Frances and Bobbi are virtually inseparable and perform spoken word poetry together in Dublin. It’s at one of their shows that they meet Melissa, and older writer, who is fascinated by the pair. Bobbi and Frances start to spend time with Melissa and her husband, Nick, a handsome but reserved actor. While Melissa and Bobbi flirt with each other openly, Nick and Frances embark on an intense secret affair that is surprising to them both. Soon the affair begins to test the bond between Frances and Bobbi, forcing Frances to reconsider her sense of self, and the friendship she holds so dear.