After Where The Crawdads Sing has been flying off the shelves of bookstores since 2018, Delia Owens' bestseller has been imagined into a new movie release starring Daisy Edgar-Jones. Now there’s certainly pressure that comes with playing a literary character readers have spent hours imagining and living through in their heads, but there’s one specific aspect of the adaptation that was particularly gratifying for the actress.
When CinemaBlend had the chance to speak to Daisy Edgar-Jones about making the film, she gushed about having the voiceover element of the movie to add to the storyline of Kya when adapting the project from the book to the big screen. In her words:
I loved that part of it because it's really exciting when you read a screenplay of an adaptation of a book and all the different approaches to it. And I loved the voiceover aspect because it felt like it was kind of Kya almost felt like she was a part of the marsh then, and it was her reflecting on her life and yeah I enjoyed sort of finding a difference in tone vocally with that part of [the film]. It was interesting because it meant, I realized, that so much of the film is flashbacks from the courtroom, even though when we were filming, it felt like everything was sort of one thing actually – so much of the development of Kya is in flashbacks and we begin not knowing who she is and come to know her as the film goes on.
It's always interesting to see how the written word can be adapted into dialogue and visual images, particularly in a movie-length format. In fact, Kya is such an internal, introverted character who doesn’t really speak her mind for much of the movie, except for a few scenes. However, that’s where the voiceover of Kya telling her story gives the story a chance reveal things from her perspective and empower the character. As Daisy Edgar-Jones told us, the voiceover usage allowed her to get to know her character better and reflect on her life with her character.
Where The Crawdads Sing was made with Delia Owens involved “every step of the way," per director Olivia Newman’s own words to CinemaBlend. The author was also reportedly “very happy” with how her story was adapted to the screen with Daisy Edgar-Jones at the forefront. Critics may be mixed on the movie, but per Rotten Tomatoes, audiences are really connecting with it.
The movie is produced by Reese Witherspoon’s Hello Sunshine company alongside Sony. Witherspoon famously helped adapt Wild, Gone Girl, Big Little Lies and Little Fires Everywhere in the past to success, so she has a knack for bringing books to the screen. Daisy Edgar-Jones also spoke to CinemaBlend about the female inclusion the Legally Blonde actress brought to set and spoke about her reaction to Taylor Swift’s original song for the movie, “Carolina.”
Where The Crawdads Sing begins with the death of Chase Andrews in a fictional town off the coast of North Carolina. Since Kya is an ex-girlfriend of his and the town’s outsider, named “Marsh Girl”, she becomes a prime suspect and is placed on trial. As audiences follow along with the evidence presented from both sides, the movie goes back to Kya’s childhood and tells her entire life story and with the help of these voiceovers we learn more about her.
Don't forget to check out our breakdown of the Where the Crawdads Sing ending and other stories about the 2022 movie here on CinemaBlend.
