Daisy Edgar-Jones kept us all glued to our screens during lockdown in 2020 with the brilliant Normal People, and now she’s back with a very different role in twisted thriller Fresh.

Available to watch now in the UK on Disney+, the movie sees Edgar-Jones play Noa who, frustrated with dating apps and awful dates, decides to take a chance on the enigmatic Steve (Sebastian Stan) when they meet at a grocery store.

It’s not long before Noa falls hard for Steve and decides to accept an invitation to a romantic weekend away. Unsurprisingly, things don’t turn out as planned as Noa starts to discover that Steve is hiding a very dark secret.

Ahead of its release, Digital Spy spoke to Daisy Edgar-Jones about keeping the wild twists of Fresh a secret, moving on from Normal People and why she wants to reprise Fresh’s dance scenes with Sebastian Stan in real life.

We went in blind to Fresh and it really added to the experience, so is this a difficult movie to talk about as you don’t really want to give away how it goes?

It is, actually. I’m so glad that you went in not knowing and with fresh eyes, pardon the pun. I hope that’s what most people’s experience is, it certainly was mine reading the script.

I didn’t know what was coming and I think that is so much fun because it definitely takes you on a bit of a ride. It is hard to talk about because you want to talk about it, but also you want to keep as much of it a secret, so I’m hopefully treading that line as best as I can.

You can pretend it’s just a rom-com with Sebastian Stan as it is until that delayed title sequence hits at 30 minutes. Was that always in the script?

That wasn’t there. That was a stroke of genius from Mimi [Cave]. I didn’t know that was going to be the case and I similarly was like, ‘Oh my God!’ when I saw it because I love it. I love the lettering they use in the font of the words.

I just thought that was so cool because it really is a film of two completely different films and it felt that way filming it.

We were lucky to do the first half of it in the first few weeks of filming, so we all got very comfortable with each other. Weirdly, we filmed the end after that and then the middle last, so it was a bit of a strange way of going about it.

It does go to some wild places, but it is grounded in the reality of modern dating and dating apps. Did you pull on any experience from either yourself or friends when it came to that side of Noa and being frustrated with this world?

I think Fresh does touch upon contemporary dating and the disposability of it too. How we swipe left on each other like we’re shopping for something.

And that feeling of being stuck in a rut when it comes to meeting people and how difficult it is to balance letting your guard down and being open to meeting people, but also the general anxiety that comes with that too. Are they gonna be kind? Are they safe? Are they a good person? Just having to trust your instincts on that.

Luckily, I didn’t have to draw from much of my own experience, but reading into dating apps and dating culture was definitely helpful to prep for it.

As you say, Fresh does span different genres and feels like a different film at times. Was it tricky to make sure Noa felt like the same character throughout?

I think that was something we were really keen to do, trying to ground it as much as we could where possible so that you earned those moments of surrealism and levity.

I think with Noa, there was one point in the film where I do want you to feel ambiguous about where she’s feeling and I think that was really fun to play. What’s cool about that character is that she didn’t know that she had a strength within herself until that experience brought it out.

Obviously it’s not fun to think about if you were in that situation, but it’s fun to wonder how you would cope and how you would react.

As well as where this plot goes, the one thing that people are going to be talking about online is your dance scenes with Sebastian Stan. How was that on set? Did you and Sebastian groove away or was there choreography?

There was choreography. Our director Mimi used to be a dancer so she’s an incredible dancer and she had a really clear idea of how she wanted the last dance in the film to play out.

The one at the start is very much improv, it’s just Sebastian and I mucking around and that sadly is how I dance. I wish I danced in a more cool, synchronised way. Those dance sequences were so fun and I hope Sebastian and I have an opportunity to whip them out in a party and no-one knows what’s coming.

Normal People was huge and it’s lovely to be associated with, but is it quite nice now to show these different sides of you and expand beyond Normal People?

I’m really excited. Noa feels like a very different character to Marianne. Most of my work prior to Normal People was in small guest roles in comedy series, so comedy is something I enjoy acting in.

Fresh has a lot of humour and wit in it which I really enjoyed being able to get back to. I’m really excited for people to see the new work and as an actor, it’s so fun to really change and transform. The hope is that I brought something different to each character.