dim, the billowing sheets — a montage sequence?” she
cringes. She hoped the show would go down well, naturally,
“but when it came out ... Jesus”, she exhales, her doe eyes like
saucers. Had she known how it would be received, “I would
not have been able to film any scenes,” she says. Edgar-Jones
was propelled from “nobody knowing my work” into the
Hollywood elite and nominated for a Bafta and a Golden
Globe, but all from a remove while deep in the pandemic.
“Zoom after Zoom after Zoom” was done from her flatshare
at the time. “I’d close my laptop and wonder if I’d actually
been talking to anyone.” She still feels closely connected to
the character of Marianne, as well as to Mescal, who is now a
good friend, and Rooney, with whom she exchanges emails.
That was two years ago, though. We’re meeting to discuss
her latest project, Under the Banner of Heaven, a drama series
for FX based on a 2003 book about Jeb Pyre, a Mormon
police detective (played by Andrew Garfield) investigating
a brutal 1984 double murder in Utah. It is harrowing and
gripping, and Edgar-Jones plays Brenda, a young mother
who is murdered, along with her toddler daughter, Erica.
Edgar-Jones describes herself as “agnostic” and says she
found the exploration of fundamentalist religion fasci-
nating. “There are certain parts of religion that are incred-
ible — the community, the meditation of praying, compas-
sion, giving and practising gratitude. I think practising
gratitude is so important for your mental health.” It was also
“lovely to be back in an ensemble cast”, and they would all
go on hikes together between filming.
Edgar-Jones grew up in Muswell Hill, north London, a
stone’s throw from the sticky, raucous boozer we’re chatting‘How can you
sum up an
entire person in
a dating app
profile? How do
you condense
that?’
The Sunday Times Style • 11