Fiona Shaw is returning to the world of Jane Austen — but this time, she wants audiences to look beyond the corsets, romance and witty exchanges.
The acclaimed Irish actor stars as Mrs Jennings in a new big-screen adaptation of Sense and Sensibility, directed by Georgia Oakley and written by Diana Reid. The film stars Daisy Edgar-Jones as Elinor Dashwood and Esmé Creed-Miles as Marianne, with Caitríona Balfe, George MacKay, Frank Dillane, Herbert Nordrum and Bodhi Rae Breathnach also among the principal cast.
In a new Financial Times interview, Shaw discusses why Austen remains relevant, what audiences can miss beneath the author’s famously witty dialogue, and why she sees Mrs Jennings as considerably more complicated than the comic figure she is sometimes made out to be.
The result is a fresh look at a familiar story — one that puts women, money, marriage, social pressure and unspoken emotions firmly back at the center.
Fiona Shaw sees more beneath Austen’s words
For Shaw, Austen’s appeal isn’t simply about period romance.
She is fascinated by what happens underneath the dialogue.
Austen’s characters often say one thing while social conventions force them to mean — or conceal — something else. That makes the novels unusually rich material for actors because seemingly ordinary conversations can contain questions about money, status, marriage and survival.
Shaw told the Financial Times that Austen’s work contains layers of meaning that extend beyond the words on the page. She particularly pointed to the restrictions placed on women and the social pressures embedded in Austen’s world.
That perspective shapes her interpretation of Mrs Jennings.
Rather than playing her simply as comic relief, Shaw sees a woman with her own ambitions, loneliness and need for connection.
Mrs Jennings is more than the funny character
Mrs Jennings is one of the most memorable supporting characters in Sense and Sensibility.
She is talkative, intrusive and fascinated by romance.
In previous adaptations, those characteristics have often made her a source of comic energy.
Shaw, however, sees something more complicated.
Her Mrs Jennings is also a woman trying to navigate the social world around her — someone who has learned how to survive through relationships, conversation and an understanding of other people’s private lives.
That interpretation gives the character another dimension.
The laughter remains.
But behind it is a woman who understands that social relationships can determine a person’s security and place in the world.
Shaw’s own upbringing helped her understand Austen
One of the more striking parts of the FT interview is Shaw’s comparison between Austen’s social world and aspects of her own upbringing in Ireland.
Shaw has described growing up in an environment that, in some respects, reminded her of the tightly connected communities depicted in Austen’s writing.
In small communities, everyone knows everyone.
Reputations matter.
Personal relationships carry enormous weight.
And seemingly insignificant conversations can become socially important.
That familiarity helped Shaw connect with Austen’s characters even though the world of the novels belongs to a very different historical period.
The new film goes back before Austen’s publication date
There is an important historical distinction surrounding this adaptation.
Jane Austen’s Sense and Sensibility was published in 1811, but Georgia Oakley’s film is set in the late 18th century, roughly between 1795 and 1799. British Vogue’s reporting on the film’s costumes confirms that period choice.
That gives the production a somewhat different visual identity from adaptations that lean heavily into the Regency period.
Costume designer Grace Snell deliberately moved away from the familiar shorthand of Austen adaptations — endless bonnets, elaborate silhouettes and overly polished period clothing.
Instead, the production uses more grounded fabrics, natural dyes, antique textiles and practical clothing.
The result is intended to make the characters feel like people living in a real historical environment rather than figures in a decorative period tableau.
Daisy Edgar-Jones and Esmé Creed-Miles take on the Dashwood sisters
At the heart of the movie are sisters Elinor and Marianne Dashwood.
Daisy Edgar-Jones plays Elinor, the practical and restrained elder sister.
Esmé Creed-Miles plays Marianne, whose emotional intensity places her on a very different path.
The contrast between the sisters is central to Austen’s story.
But director Georgia Oakley and screenwriter Diana Reid have emphasized the relationship between the women rather than treating the story as a simple competition between “sense” and “sensibility.”
Reuters reported that the filmmakers view Elinor and Marianne’s relationship as more symbiotic, with each sister learning from the other.
That makes sisterhood one of the film’s central themes.
A story about money as much as romance
It is easy to remember Sense and Sensibility as a love story.
But financial insecurity is one of its driving forces.
After the death of their father, the Dashwood women are left in a vulnerable financial position. The family loses much of its former security and has to relocate.
The sisters then confront questions that would have been particularly significant for women of their social position:
Who can they marry?
Who can they trust?
How much financial independence can they have?
And what happens when love and economic security do not point in the same direction?
The British Council’s film database describes the new adaptation as following Elinor and Marianne as they navigate love, loss and financial uncertainty amid the social expectations of the period.
Those themes make Austen’s story surprisingly contemporary.
Shaw says Austen understood human behavior
The enduring power of Austen, according to Shaw, comes from her ability to observe people.
Austen wrote about a highly restricted social world, but the emotions inside it remain recognizable.
Jealousy.
Embarrassment.
Ambition.
Loneliness.
Romantic disappointment.
Family pressure.
The desire to be accepted.
The fear of losing financial security.
Those emotions haven’t disappeared simply because society has changed.
Reuters reported that Shaw has emphasized Austen’s continuing insight into human nature during the film’s promotional campaign.
The famous Mrs Jennings laugh has a story behind it
One of the most distinctive details Shaw discussed was her decision to give Mrs Jennings a particularly memorable laugh.
Rather than treating the laugh as an incidental comic device, Shaw based aspects of it on people she had encountered in real life.
It becomes part of the character’s identity.
That fits Shaw’s broader approach to acting: small behavioral choices can reveal a great deal about a character.
For Mrs Jennings, the laugh immediately signals someone who is socially confident and unafraid to occupy space.
But the character’s deeper motivations remain underneath it.
Shaw is no stranger to Jane Austen
This isn’t Shaw’s first encounter with Austen.
She previously appeared as Mrs Croft in the 1995 television adaptation of Persuasion.
That experience gave her an earlier opportunity to explore Austen’s characters and the historical world surrounding them.
In an earlier interview with The Guardian, Shaw recalled the production’s decision to emphasize historical atmosphere and the realities of early-19th-century life rather than simply creating a polished period romance.
Her return to Austen decades later therefore carries a certain continuity.
But the new Sense and Sensibility is a different production with a different visual and dramatic approach.
This isn’t the 1995 movie remake
The comparison is inevitable.
The 1995 Sense and Sensibility, directed by Ang Lee and written by Emma Thompson, became one of the best-known modern Austen adaptations. Thompson starred as Elinor, with Kate Winslet as Marianne, Hugh Grant as Edward Ferrars and Alan Rickman as Colonel Brandon.
The new film is not a direct remake of that production.
It is a new adaptation of Austen’s novel with a different cast, director, screenplay and visual approach.
UPI noted that the 1995 film remains one of the major previous screen versions of the novel.
That history inevitably raises expectations.
But Oakley’s version appears intent on establishing its own identity rather than simply recreating the earlier film.
The costumes are designed to feel less polished
That difference is particularly visible in the wardrobe.
British Vogue reported that costume designer Grace Snell wanted to move away from the conventional Austen aesthetic of constant bonnets and overly decorative clothing.
The production instead incorporates natural dyes, antique fabrics, hand-sewn garments and more restrained silhouettes.
The costumes also change with the characters’ emotional circumstances.
Mourning scenes use darker shades, while later settings introduce different colors and textures.
The clothes therefore function as part of the storytelling rather than merely decorating the period setting.
Fiona Shaw’s career keeps crossing genres
For audiences who know Shaw primarily from one role, her filmography is considerably broader.
She has worked extensively in theater and has appeared in productions including Harry Potter, Killing Eve, Andor and numerous stage performances.
Her ability to move between dramatic, comic and highly theatrical roles makes Mrs Jennings an intriguing casting choice.
The character requires comedy.
But Shaw’s interpretation appears interested in the emotional machinery underneath the comedy.
That is where the new adaptation could distinguish itself.
The film arrives as Austen returns to the spotlight
The new Sense and Sensibility is arriving during another major wave of interest in Jane Austen adaptations.
The film’s release comes alongside renewed interest in period romances and literary adaptations, while a new Pride and Prejudice television adaptation is also in development for Netflix, featuring Fiona Shaw in the role of Lady Catherine de Bourgh.
For Austen fans, that means Shaw will effectively be inhabiting two different corners of the author’s universe around the same period.
But her Mrs Jennings offers something very different from Lady Catherine.
One is socially exuberant and intrusive.
The other is famously formidable.
Both, however, are products of a world in which social position and marriage can dramatically shape a woman’s choices.
When can audiences see Sense and Sensibility?
The film is scheduled to open in UK cinemas on September 25, 2026, followed by its U.S. theatrical release on October 16, 2026. Focus Features lists the film as a theatrical romance-drama directed by Georgia Oakley and starring Daisy Edgar-Jones, Esmé Creed-Miles, Caitríona Balfe, George MacKay and Fiona Shaw.
The film’s promotional campaign has already brought the cast together for premieres and interviews, with Shaw discussing everything from Austen’s social observations to her approach to Mrs Jennings.
Why Fiona Shaw’s Mrs Jennings could be the character to watch
The most intriguing element of Shaw’s interpretation may be that she refuses to leave Mrs Jennings at the surface.
Yes, she is funny.
Yes, she is nosy.
Yes, she is fascinated by other people’s romantic lives.
But she also exists inside a society where women have limited routes to independence and where relationships can determine security, reputation and social standing.
That makes her behavior easier to understand.
And it gives the comedy a slightly sharper edge.
Perhaps that is exactly why Austen has survived for more than two centuries.
The dresses change.
The houses change.
The technology changes.
But people still worry about money, love, reputation, family expectations and what other people think of them.
And Fiona Shaw believes that is the secret hidden beneath Jane Austen’s famously elegant words.
