COMING UP DAISIES

THE BREAKOUT STAR OF ‘NORMAL PEOPLE’ TALKS BECOMING AN OVERNIGHT SENSATION, HER HOT CAREER AND THOSE RAUNCHY SEX SCENES ...

- Hilary Morgan

Every so often, an actor breaks through in a debut or early role and emerges as a fully formed star. Think Keira Knightley in Bend It Like Beckham, Kate Winslet in Heavenly Creatures or Anne Hathaway in The Princess Diaries. This year, Daisy Edgar-Jones inhabits that space thanks to her mesmerising performance as the beautiful, damaged student Marianne in Normal People. But if you’ve already binged that must-see series, you can catch Daisy in her next major role from July 9 when her latest TV series War of the Worlds launches on SBS. “It’s been bonkers,” she says of overnight fame.

Normal People has become such a huge show. How are you coping with all the attention you are getting now?

It’s strange, especially doing interviews when it’s yourself and not all of the cast. It’s like, “God, I’m talking about myself for so long!” But I love the show, we all do, so it’s really fun to talk about it. With all of this madness in the world right now, we didn’t know whether we would be able to do anything, so it’s been brilliant that there’s been other forms of being able to talk about the show. We are very proud of Normal People and I’m glad I can do my part in singing its praises.

How did you get started in acting?