Daisy Edgar-Jones says Elinor Dashwood would belt Dolly Parton

Daisy Edgar-Jones thinks Jane Austen's most sensible heroine would have been a Dolly Parton fan.

The actor plays Elinor Dashwood in a new film version of Sense and Sensibility from director Georgia Oakley, according to AP. She told Variety she can picture Elinor belting Parton's "Here You Come Again" around her bedroom at Barton Cottage, had Elinor lived in a time with Dolly on the radio.

Esmé Creed-Miles plays Marianne Dashwood, Elinor's sister, and Caitríona Balfe plays Mrs Dashwood, Variety reported. The ensemble also includes Frank Dillane, George MacKay and Fiona Shaw, according to Focus Features. The project is a fresh adaptation of Austen's novel from Focus Features and Working Title Films, which announced it in June 2025.

The Los Angeles premiere took place on Oct. 7 at the United Theatre in Downtown L.A., Variety reported. A premiere is the first big public showing, with the cast together in one room. This one put the Dashwood family back on the big screen, in front of an audience in the heart of the city.

Music is part of how Edgar-Jones finds her characters. She told Variety she prepares for roles by listening to songs that put her in the character's headspace. In other words, she builds a private soundtrack before she builds the performance.

Her Sense and Sensibility playlist runs wide. It includes Billie Holiday, Minnie Riperton, Parton, Alice Phoebe Lou, Julia Jacklin and Jessica Pratt. That is a mix that moves from classic jazz and soul singing to soft, modern folk. Short version: torch singers, gentle guitars and one big country-pop chorus.

"Here You Come Again" is the childhood favourite in the bunch. Edgar-Jones said she used to belt it in the car on the way home from school. She can still sing every word. It is the kind of memory many listeners will recognise at once.

What makes this stand out is how little it sounds like homework for a period drama. No lutes. No piano sonatas. Just the kind of songs an actor actually plays on repeat while getting ready.

For fans, this means a new way in. Listen to the list, and you hear Elinor not as a bonnet and a secret, but as a young woman trying to keep calm while feeling everything. The playlist does not retell the plot. It gives you the mood she carried into it.