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Joe Alwyn has recently starred as Nick Conway on BBC Three/Hulu's 'Conversation with Friends,' an adaptation of the novel of the same name by Irish novelist Sally Rooney.
The English actor, who's been in a relationship with Taylor Swift since 2016, had to learn how to convincingly sound Irish to play Nick, a 30-something actor who's struggling to trust his wife Melissa Baines ('Girls' and 'Sex Education' star Jemima Kirke) again after she cheated on him. When the couple meet two best friends and college students, Frances Flynn (Alison Oliver) and Bobbi Connolly (Sasha Lane), their dynamic shifts and Nick and Frances begin their own affair.
Andrew Scott Inspired Joe Alwyn For Nick's Accent On 'Conversation With Friends'
In a video interview with 'IMDb,' Alwyn told Oliver, who's Irish, that he had a few clear inspirations when he was preparing for the role with a dialogue coach.
"There was a fantastic dialogue coach called Neil Swain and another actually one called Judith McSpadden and they helped me a lot," Alwyn revealed.
"The type of accent is a South Dublin, middle class accent which is weirdly quite anglicized anyway and it’s where ['Conversation with Friends' director] Lenny [Abrahamson] is from. But I listened to a lot of people from that area who also happen to be actors like Andrew Scott, Tom Vaughn-Lawlor. I did that and then I crossed my fingers, and here we are."
Alwyn listed Scott, who famously portrayed the Hot Priest in 'Fleabag,' among his inspirations for Nick's accent.
Joe Alwyn On Miscommunication In 'Conversation With Friends'
Like 'Normal People,' the hit series adapted from another of Rooney's novels, 'Conversation with Friends,' too, explores the communication, or lack thereof, between characters.
"I think we sadly all text slightly more than we do speak on the phone," Alwyn said.
"But I do like speaking more face to face or on the phone. Rather than everything becoming an emoji."
While Alwyn might be communicative, his character Nick isn't just as much. If the actor had to give one piece of advice to Nick, it would be: "Work on your communication skills!!" and it makes total sense.
In an interview with 'Entertainment Weekly,' Alwyn — who has starred on 'The Favourite' and 'Boy Erased' and will next be seen in Lena Dunham's 'Catherine, Called Birdy' —said Nick is "definitely one of the quieter characters [I've played]".
"He's a bit like Frances, I think. He struggles with expressing himself and saying how he's feeling, let alone maybe even knowing how he's feeling.
"But I like that about the characters that [Rooney] writes, that as much of it is about what's unsaid as is what's said. Particularly at the beginning, he's very aloof and hard to read. When you meet him, he's at a place of recovery and he's been through a bit of a storm, but we don't know that until a while later. And so what can seem quite distant or what can seem withholding, I think is really, he's just holding on, he's quite fragile."
Alwyn And Co-Star Alison Oliver Didn't Meet For Chemistry Reads Before Filming
Discussing his professional relationship with Oliver, Alwyn explained that he and his co-star didn't meet for chemistry reads prior to filming.
"She auditioned separately and I did some tapes and then I think we were cast around the same time," he said.
"We started speaking pretty soon after that. But because it was lockdown, we were all stuck on the old Zoom. So it wasn't until a few months later that I met her for the first time and I met Lenny for the first time in Belfast. The three of us spent a few nights in a hotel there in the middle of lockdown and just chatted through episode by episode. But we mainly just got to know each other a bit, which was nice."
Joe Alwyn On Filming Sex Scenes For 'Conversation With Friends'
Fans of 'Normal People' know well that a Rooney's series adaptation wouldn't be complete without a few beautifully choreographed sex scenes. In that regard, 'Conversation with Friends' didn't disappoint.
"We were guided through it with an intimacy coordinator, Ita O'Brien [also choreographer on 'Normal People'], who is great," Alwyn told 'The Guardian'.
"They're essentially choreographed. So they’re like fight scenes. They're quite mechanical. And obviously they're weird, funny, strange things to do with your friends. But when Lenny's in the room, cracking jokes, and there's 10 crew members around, and it's freezing cold or boiling hot, it just takes all the sexiness out of it," he continued.
He then said: "They are kind of extensions of the conversations, in their own way. Each one, hopefully, should feel slightly different and mean something different to the people involved, and they're not just kind of gratuitously thrown in. But, I mean, obviously, it's a weird part of the job."
'Conversations with Friends' is streaming on Hulu.
