In a school in a small-town west of Ireland, Connell (Paul Mescal) is a well-liked, good looking and athletic football player. Marianne (Daisy Edgar-Jones) is a proud, intimidating and unpopular loner who actively avoids her classmates and challenges teachers’ authority.

  Sparks fly between the two when Connell comes to pick up his mother Lorraine from her job at Marianne’s house, and a strange and indelible connection grows between the two teenagers – one they are determined to conceal from their peers.

Irish actor Paul Mescal talks about why he got involved with the project. 

  “I got the scripts sent through and then I made the mistake of reading the book first. The book (Normal People by Sally Rooney) is incredible, I wanted to literally eat it. As I got further into the audition process I read the book from Connell’s viewpoint, which was really interesting.”

What do you think is it about the book that people relate to? Why do readers have such a connection?

  “It’s set in a place that most people have experienced. It’s about relationships. Someone has experienced it at some point in their lives, on a very basic human level.”

What do you think Normal People is about?

  “The story is about people who are navigating their own lives and each other’s lives at the same time. It’s about how wonderful that can be. Love can be amazing but also at times the most crippling. Growing up and finding those things out isn’t the easiest.”

What does the title mean to you?

  “I think I’m biased but to me, it means Marianne and Connell. They are symbols for most people that I know.”

What draws Marianne and Connell together? What is the hold they have on each other?

  “On a simplistic level, they are desperately in love with each other. But that doesn’t mean they are the best fit for each other. Half the time I’m so jealous of Connell, that he gets to live this full life, but in other ways I wouldn’t want his baggage.

  “There’s an instinctive kind of connection that they have, that if the characters were talking themselves, they wouldn’t ever be able to articulate to each other properly. It’s easy for us as Paul and Daisy to discuss Connell and Marianne, because we can communicate – that’s not something Connell and Marianne are good at doing with each other.”

What excites you about the series?

  “It excites me that we’ve stayed so true to the book, but you have to step into a visual medium and show what we think is our version of the characters, living in our version of the world.”

What do you hope audiences take from the series?

  “I hope that they recognise that regardless of where they are watching it, this a world that they live in and they exist in. Hopefully it will give, or it will illuminate certain difficulties that everybody goes through.”

Starring English actor Daisy Edgar-Jones (known for her roles in Cold Feet and War Of The Worlds) as Marianne and Paul Mescal (known for his roles in Aftersun and The Lost Daughter) in his first television role as Connell, the series is a highly anticipated adaptation of Irish author Sally Rooney’s international literary phenomenon, Normal People. Adapted and co-written by Sally Rooney, Normal People is now streaming on SBS On Demand. 

Published in Anglo&Celtic magazine on 1 July 2023.