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When Alison Oliver found out she had been cast in Conversations With Friends (the only newcomer in a cast that includes Joe Alwyn, Jemima Kirke and Sasha Lane) the morning after graduating from drama school, she responded as a Sally Rooney character might. “I just had no idea how to wrap my head around it,” the 24-year-old Cork native recalls with a laugh. “I literally sat on my bed for hours, staring at the wall opposite, in total shock.” While this might be Oliver’s first professional role, she’s already firmly embedded within the Rooney-verse. Like Paul Mescal, she attended The Lir Academy in Dublin, where she watched the Normal People star in amateur productions, while her long-term boyfriend, Eanna Hardwicke, played Rob in Normal People. “I guess it does all feel quite serendipitous,” she reflects in her Irish lilt, smiling. “Serendipitous – but totally surreal.”
Here, she shares a few of her favourite things with Vogue.
“My sister just launched Olly Olly, a sustainable activewear brand that I wear all the time.”
“It’s so hard to choose the film I love the most, but Only You, with Laia Costa and Josh O’Connor, is definitely up there. Their chemistry is just incredible.”
“My ideal Saturday night is having friends over for cheese, wine and a game of 30 Seconds.”
“If I need cheering up, I listen to an album on my record player. Someone recently gave me Dolly Parton’s ‘Jolene’ on vinyl and I’ve had it on repeat.”
“The last great novel I read was Stoner by John Williams. It’s really a forgotten classic.”
“I began swimming in the Irish Sea during the pandemic – it gives you such an endorphin rush. I also love doing the Howth Cliff Walk on a Sunday afternoon.”
“I’m more into skincare than make-up. All of The Ordinary’s products are brilliant, especially the Hyaluronic Acid.”
“There’s a Dublin artist called Maser whose work I love. He does amazing prints.”
