How Dir. Georgia Oakley Captured Austen's Yearning on Celluloid in 'Sense and Sensibility'
"This is really a story about what young women are led to believe they might reasonably expect from their lives versus what the world is actually prepared to offer them."
'Sense and Sensibility'
How do you bring Jane Austen's Sense and Sensibility to life for a modern audience while preserving its emotional depth? In this episode of the No Film School Podcast, director Georgia Oakley joins No Film School's GG Hawkins to discuss her new adaptation, starring Daisy Edgar-Jones and Esmé Creed-Miles as the Dashwood sisters. Oakley shares how she approached the film through the lens of sisterhood, longing, and the timeless tension between women's expectations and societal constraints.
She breaks down her filmmaking process, from shooting on 35mm film and using two cameras to capture authentic performances to collaborating with cinematographers Arnaud Potier and Tasha Back on naturalistic visuals. The conversation also explores casting, building chemistry between actors, adapting rehearsal techniques to individual performers, and navigating the pressures of an ambitious location-heavy production.
In this episode, we discuss:
- (02:09) How Oakley landed the directing job on Sense and Sensibility and pitched her vision to Working Title
- (03:24) Making the relationship between Elinor and Marianne Dashwood the film's central love story
- (05:28) Why Austen's themes of women's independence, societal expectations, and romantic yearning remain relevant
- (07:16) How modern hyperconnectivity and busyness have fueled a cultural desire for longing and human connection
- (09:44) Using nature, stillness, and the passage of time to create intimacy in a period drama
- (11:22) Oakley's pre-production process, including storyboards, shot lists, and adapting camera setups on location
- (13:35) Collaborating with two cinematographers and using natural light and environmental details to build the film's visual language
- (15:04) How shooting with two cameras allowed Oakley to capture simultaneous emotional reactions and spontaneous performances
- (17:41) The challenges of shooting on 35mm film with limited takes and tailoring rehearsals to each actor's needs
- (19:55) Filming at London's National Gallery under strict time and lighting constraints
- (23:24) Building trust with actors through communication, personalized rehearsals, and relationship-focused preparation
- (27:26) Casting Daisy Edgar-Jones and Esmé Creed-Miles and developing their believable sisterly chemistry
- (33:15) How Oakley uses intense focus and directorial intuition to recognize authentic performances
- (35:50) Redirecting actors when a scene isn't working without undermining their confidence
- (37:59) Sustaining creative energy through a demanding 50-day shoot and relying on a supportive production team
- (40:15) Working with Old English Sheepdogs and embracing the spontaneity animals bring to a film set
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