Why ‘Sense and Sensibility’ Star George MacKay Still Hasn’t Watched Ang Lee’s Oscar-Winning Classic

MacKay was joined by co-stars Daisy Edgar-Jones, Esme Creed-Miles, Herbert Nordrum, Frank Dillane and Fiona Shaw at the world premiere of Georgia Oakley’s haunting, tender Austen adaptation.

The cast of Georgia Oakley’s Sense and Sensibility graced London’s Leicester Square at the film’s world premiere on Tuesday night, and to quote Jane Austen herself: They were very amiable indeed.

The latest Austen adaptation from Focus Features — out Sept. 25 in the U.K. and Oct. 16 in the U.S. — had fans in a frenzy as Daisy Edgar-Jones, Esme Creed-Miles (daughter of The Odyssey‘s Samantha Morton), George MacKay, Herbert Nordrum, Frank Dillane, Bodhi Rae Breathnach and Fiona Shaw donned their finest ensembles and made their way down the media line.

“What I love about this story is that it champions, particularly through Elinor and I guess through Edward as well, people who put others first,” MacKay, playing the noble Edward Ferrars, told The Hollywood Reporter on the grassy, green carpet, where pastel-colored flowers sprouted up from the ground and a live cellist played. “It’s very difficult to have stories centered [around] characters who hide their emotions, and it’s not a particularly shiny quality to put others in front of you all the time. It’s chivalrous, but it’s difficult to translate. And I love that Jane Austen, in her writing, does that so beautifully with a character like Elinor. And in this film, Edward gets to share in that a little bit.”

The 1917 star did confess he has opted not to watch Ang Lee‘s 1995 Sense and Sensibility with Emma Thompson, Kate Winslet, Hugh Grant and Alan Rickman — the very film that won Thompson her Oscar for best adapted screenplay. “And I hadn’t read the book before I became part of this project, and so I didn’t really have that pressure,” MacKay continued about shouldering the weight of the Sense and Sensibility legacy and Austen’s adoring fanbase.

“I knew [the film] in the ether to be something of a great import, but I elected not to try and see the film so I didn’t do exactly that — didn’t put pressure on myself. I let my interpretation be my own, [I was] led by the script that Diana Reid wrote for this, and so the pressure wasn’t too bad in the end,” said MacKay, who did confirm shortly after that he’ll be watching 1995’s Sense and Sensibility after the premiere.Normal People and Twisters star Edgar-Jones, looking a vision in grey with a black choker, stopped for just a moment, where she mulled over her best Austen-esque advice for matters of the heart. “Oh, I heard this recently — I think it was Ethan Hawke so I cannot claim it,” the Briton laughed to THR. “It’s something along the lines of, ‘The person in love is always the person who wins.’ Because to feel love and be in love is when you feel most alive and that is magic. Like, lean into passion and I think that’s what Elinor learns throughout the film. So I thought that was beautiful.”