TAKES THE LEAD

Funny thing about that string of projects with your favorite actors: The British actress has earned top billing in almost every one. Ahead of On Swift Horses with Jacob Elordi, she talks about her whirlwind rise and the source of her quiet power.

- DOUGLAS GREENWOOD

In a dance studio somewhere in north London, Daisy Edgar-Jones is standing on her tiptoes. It's been about five years—and a sudden rise to international fame—since she felt like her heels last touched the ground. In an effort to return to her roots, the actor decided to take up ballet lessons again. She hasn't worn these shoes since she was seven.

“My mum still has my grade one certificate,” Edgar-Jones says. Returning to ballet now, after her mind wandered from it as a child, feels like she’s recentering herself. Though it’s not lost on her that she is, despite being just 26, a little old to be studying for her grade two qualification. “My lovely ballet teacher told me that I could do a group exam or a solo one, but that the group exam would be me and a bunch of eight-year-olds!” she says, laughing. “They'd wipe the floor with me.”

Edgar-Jones and I have agreed to meet at a Mediterranean café in Crouch End, the leafy London neighborhood that was rumored to have hosted Taylor Swift during her time here, and that borders Muswell Hill, where Edgar-Jones grew up. She bounds through the door in a wool hat, a tan distressed-leather jacket, a white T-shirt, black pants, and boots, spotting me in the corner.

The ballet dancing—an act of grounding—follows a half decade that changed her life in ways she could never have predicted. Back in April of 2020, Edgar-Jones became what felt like one of the most-watched women in the world. The TV limited series she starred in, an adaptation of Sally Rooney’s searingly sad romance Normal People, coddled a bruised population through the early stages of the pandemic. Her performance as Marianne earned Golden Globe and BAFTA nominations; alongside her costar, Paul Mescal, she became an internet obsession.