Director Olivia Newman’s Where The Crawdads Sing adapts the best-selling novel by Delia Owens to the big screen. Set in the 1950s and 1960s’ North Carolina marshlands, Where The Crawdads Sing stars Daisy Edgar-Jones (Under The Banner Of Heaven) as Kya, a young woman orphaned since she was a little girl who has survived in the swamps.
Combining elements of a murder mystery and a courtroom drama with a coming-of-age story and a romance, Where The Crawdads Sing aims to capture the spirit of the novel, which has sold over 12-million copies.
Screen Rant screened 30 minutes of footage from Where The Crawdads Sing and took part in a roundtable interview with director Olivia Newman. In an in-depth discussion, Newman described her involvement in Where The Crawdads Sing, working with star Daisy Edgar-Jones and executive producer Reese Witherspoon, the challenges of adapting the beloved, best-selling novel, and what she hopes audiences will take away from her film when it’s released in theaters on July 15, 2022.
Can you talk about how you came on board to direct Where The Crawdads Sing?
Olivia Newman: It was in the middle of the pandemic. July 2o20. I was sent the book and the script; I read the book in two days. It felt like something I just had to be involved with. I just fell head over heels for it. So, I put together a pitch and met with [producers] Lauren Neustadter and Erin Siminoff. From there, I started pitching up the ladder and got the job.
Was Daisy Edgar-Jones already attached?
Olivia Newman: She was not. She was the first person that we cast.
What was it about the book that really captivated you?
Olivia Newman: I’m the youngest of five kids. I grew up in Hoboken, New Jersey. My father is a hunter. He would go to Mississippi every year to hunt and when he would come back with venison, it was a big deal. We would all sit around the table with the venison but it was really about hearing the story of the hunt. For us city kids, it was hearing about how he would describe the woods. There was this mystical, folklore-ish quality to his stories. Eventually, he bought land in upstate New York and he built a cabin. We were a big family and it was a place we could all go and spend the weekends in the summer.
For me, spending time in the woods and stories about the woods has always been part of my childhood. I was just swept up in this story of this young girl who is left alone in the woods and, against all odds, manages to survive. It just really tapped into something that, as a kid, was the ultimate story.
The character of Kya is incredibly resilient. She’s so resourceful. I love that even though she’s vulnerable and very sensitive, she also has incredible strength at her core. I loved watching her develop this sense of self-worth and discovering, through her own artistic skills and her scientific studies, who she is and what her voice is. [She’s] a character that’s very universal in her journey.
What was it that attracted you to Daisy?
Olivia Newman: It’s funny because when the pandemic hit in 2020, all productions shut down and we were looking to develop material because there was nothing shooting. I was getting sent a lot of dark, psychological thrillers. And I tend to be drawn to very dark material in general. But at the time, life was so dark, I really need[ed] a good romance. I need to fall in love. A friend of mine said, “Have you watched Normal People?” It was exactly what I needed. It was just going through that falling-in-love experience through Daisy’s incredible performance. It was like medicine for the soul.
When [Daisy’s] name came up when we were talking about who was gonna play Kya, I [said] I love this young actress. But can she play a role like Kya? It’s very different from her role in Normal People. I have to say, her first reading brought all of us to tears, including Delia [Owens]. It felt like we were watching Kya’s voice come out of this beautiful British actress. It felt like Kya was just emerging from her mouth.
Did she do the accent in that reading?
Olivia Newman: She did, yes. And she is incredible with accents. She has an incredible knack for dialects.
The film has such a great atmosphere. Was there something you remember reading in the text that influenced how you wanted to adapt it?
Olivia Newman: One of the most incredible parts of the book is the way Delia describes the marsh and describes the landscape. That comes from being a naturalist herself. Her scientific voice is one of the things that is so unique in the storytelling of the novel. For me, it was so important that we capture Kya’s world, the marsh and the swamps, and the different textures of those backdrops really specifically.
We looked at Terrence Malick’s work; we looked at Jane Campion’s work. The way Jane Campion captured the landscape in The Piano – of course, The Power of the Dog wasn’t out yet. We looked at our great heroes and how they painted that portrait of landscape as its own character when we were talking about how we wanted to shoot the marsh. I worked with an incredible cinematographer, Polly Morgan. We looked at paintings, we looked at photography, and we drew from all of the mediums.
In the book, Kya’s poetry is integral to the story. Is Kya’s poetry going to be incorporated into the film? (Screen Rant)
Olivia Newman: You’ll have to see the movie to find out. [laughs] I’ll say that we hope her poetry comes through in the visual language, in the voiceover, and in her voice. [Kya’s poetry] comes through in that way.
What does Reese Witherspoon bring as an executive producer?
Olivia Newman: Reese had the passion for the book from the beginning. That passion carries all the way through. She’s so smart and she was incredibly supportive. I have to say, from the very first meeting I had with her, she said it was one of our missions to give women opportunities that they haven’t yet been given.
This is my first studio movie. Reese said, “How can we support you in making that leap?” That was her stance from the beginning. Her whole team at Hello Sunshine are there for you every step of the way and [they] really had my back. It’s because of who’s at the top.
Was it scary for you since Delia has an immense fan club for the book?
Olivia Newman: Yes, every time I tell someone what I’m working on, they say, “That was my favorite book.” And my stomach turns. [laughs] The book is incredible. I hope everyone reads the book. The book is what I fell in love with that brought me to the project.
I do think that people will feel like they were transported when they see the movie in a similar way that you were transported when you read the book. It was my hope to capture [its] essence, and the soul, and that journey that I went on when I read the book. I wanted to make sure I captured that same emotional journey in the movie. And I think it does.
Did you know what crawdads are?
Olivia Newman: [laughs] Now I do. I’ve eaten them. We ate a lot of crawfish in New Orleans. The book is set in North Car0lina in the 1950s and ’60s. We wanted to make sure we could capture similar landscapes. We did shoot at the coastal line of North Carolina, because you just can’t replicate that, but it was actually hard to find some of the landscapes that were in the book that have remained undeveloped.
We ended up finding the marshes and the swamps in and around New Orleans. So, we got to have both textures of the big, wide marshlands and the moss-covered trees, and the old oak trees.
What was it like shooting during COVID?
Olivia Newman: It was hard. It changes things, for sure. We followed the most stringent rules and we never got shut down because of COVID. We got shut down because of torrential rains, floods, and lightning storms. But never COVID.
How involved was Delia in the film?
Olivia Newman: She was involved every step of the way. She read every draft of the script and gave notes. She saw every actor we cast. She was extremely supportive. I think she understood that the movie is going to be its own medium but that we all came to it with such a love and passion for her book. We wanted to make sure that we did it justice.
Delia came to set and visited. She was just so excited and supportive the whole way. She’s just a delightful human being. And she was a great resource to us anytime we had questions.
It’s so cool you got Taylor Swift involved. [Swift wrote and performed an original song, “Carolina,” for the film]. How did that happen?
Olivia Newman: She had read and loved the book so much that she felt compelled to write a song for it. And it was before we had even shot the movie. When I heard the song, I couldn’t believe it was tonally so perfect. It is so beautiful. Every time the movie ends and that song comes on, it captures the feeling where you need to sit and digest what just happened. The song is the perfect vessel for those feelings. It sets exactly the right tone.
But [Swift writing a song] was very serendipitous because we hadn’t shot the movie yet. For it to be such a perfect match was a gift. What a gift.
Did Daisy do her own stunts?
Olivia Newman: She loves doing all of the work. She learned how to drive a boat, she learned how to fish. She did a lot of movement work to learn to walk around the marsh barefoot. She loved doing stunts. Whenever we had a stunt sequence, we had our stunt double ready, and Daisy would always nail it on the first take. Daisy was a diver in high school. Kya does a lot of swimming and underwater work. Daisy was just incredible doing all of her own stunts. I don’t know if there’s anything Daisy can’t do.
I mean, Daisy dives into the waters that have alligators in them. And she as ready and willing. Of course, we had animal safety to make sure that it was safe. But she dove into that swamp.
What do you most hope audiences take away from the film? (Screen Rant)
Olivia Newman: I hope that it’s transportive. I think that Kya is a character that anybody can relate to. There’s something very universal about her struggle to survive, and to find her voice, and to claim her self-worth. And it’s an epic romance, as well. I hope – I know – that people are going to fall in love with Kya and Tate [played by Taylor John Smith]. [The film] is such an ode to nature. I think that’s something people love about the book. Delia’s love for nature is so palpable. Kya’s relationship with the marsh and all that it brings her is really special.
I hope it’s the kind of movie that people can go and see with their families and with loved ones. I sat in the editing room for a year with this footage and I miss it. It’s a world that you don’t want to leave because it’s so unique. [Kya] is such a specific and unique character that I hope people will want to come back and revisit her.
But at the same time, it’s also a thriller. It’s a mystery-thriller.
Was it a challenge to balance those elements? (Screen Rant)
Olivia Newman: Yeah, and that’s what made it such a unique and exciting project for a director. It has this mystery-thriller at the center driving the story. And then it has these romances, and it has this survivalist tale and this incredible landscape. It has all of these elements that appeal to a very broad audience. There’s something for everybody in it.
Where The Crawdads Sing Synopsis
Abandoned by her family, Where the Crawdads Sing is a coming of age story of a young girl raised by the marshlands of the south in the 50’s. Watching many years past, when the town hotshot is found dead, and inexplicably linked to Kya, the Marsh Girl is the prime suspect in his murder case.
Where The Crawdads Sing arrives in theaters on July 15.
