Given the immense success of Normal People, it’s hardly surprising that author Sally Rooney’s debut novel, Conversations With Friends, is about to get the TV show treatment.
Announced in early May 2020, co-producer Ed Guiney revealed that the book, which has flown relatively under-the-radar compared to its successor, would also be taking to our screens as another 12-part series.
And although no details about the coming show have been confirmed, that hasn’t stopped us (or the rest of the Internet) from speculating about who will play the book’s four Irish lead characters: Frances, Bobbi, Nick and Melissa.
So, in the interest of manifesting the cast we deserve, we’ve rounded up exactly who we want to star in Conversations With Friends.
Saoirse Ronan as Frances
Besides the fact that she is Irish and wouldn’t even have to try to nail the accent, Saoirse Ronan would be perfect for the cool-headed and darkly observant aspiring poet-cum-college-student.
In the book, Frances exhibits a cool detachment from her feelings but acts as a hyper-articulate narrator, which we are quite confident Ronan could do with aplomb.
Emma Mackey as Bobbi
Described as “beautiful and endlessly self-posessed” in the books, Sex Education’s Emma Mackey could be potentially great as Frances’ best friend Bobbi (Irish accent abilities TBD).
In the novel, Frances also recounts the time Bobbi “got her nose pierced and took up smoking” and how she got “temporarily suspended once for writing ‘fuck the patriarchy’ on the wall beside a plaster cast of the crucifixion.”
At the risk of typecasting Mackey, her ability to play the rebel-with-a-cause could make her just right for the role.
Jamie Dornan as Nick
In the book, Frances and Bobbi find themselves swept up in world of an older married couple, well-to-do journalist Melissa and her actor husband, Nick.
Based on Rooney’s descriptions (or rather, Frances’) of Nick, he is said to have a “big, handsome face” and “looked like he could comfortably pick Melissa up under one arm and fend of interlopers with another”.
Naturally, the first person who came to mind was Irish actor Jamie Dornan, who famously played the BDSM-obsessed billionaire Christian Grey in Fifty Shades of Grey.
Bella Heathcote as Melissa
Orbiting in a world of “wine-soaked dinner party conversation and “casual jaunts to the French Riviera”, the cerebral Melissa was difficult to cast, but we believe that Australian actress Bella Heathcote could take on the challenge.
Currently starring in Stan’s Bloom, the ethereal star could easily convey the steely coolness Melissa exudes in the novel.
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