Daisy Edgar-Jones: 'Fresh' highlights the 'general day to day anxiety of women' (exclusive)

Watch: Daisy Edgar-Jones on the humour of Fresh

When it comes to humour, Normal People’s Daisy Edgar-Jones has a taste for the dark side. As she revealed to Yahoo, it was one of the main reasons she decided to be in Fresh, which arrives on Disney+ this week. But, even though she plays another woman looking for love, the film paints a bleak picture of romance.

“It explores the difficulty in dating, wanting to let your guard down and be open to meeting someone, but also the general anxiety of how you can do that and how safe it is to navigate it,” she tells Yahoo.

She plays Noa who — frustrated with dating apps — meets the attractive Steve (Sebastian Stan) in a grocery store and, abandoning swiping right, takes a chance and gives him her number.

Read more: Sundance hit Fresh to launch on Disney+

“There’s parts of the film that highlight the general anxiety of women from day to day — Noa walking home with a key in her fist should anything happen — and if there’s someone walking two metres behind us we all think the worst," she explains. "But we don’t talk about it very often.”

One romantic date later, and Noa’s smitten. He seems to feel the same and whisks her away for a romantic weekend. Which is when she discovers he has some unusual appetites. The less you know, the more fun there is to be had with Fresh.

Adding laughter to the mix meant the film “explores darker themes, but it doesn’t hit you over the head with them.”

As soon as she read Lauryn Kahn’s script for one of the big hits at this year’s Sundance Film Festival, she 'knew tonally it was going to play out with humour.'

Watch a trailer for Fresh

"I love dark comedy," she tells us. "It’s my favourite genre of film and TV to watch. And the humour is really important. What we really wanted to do was ground it as much as we could when we could, so that we earned those moments of levity.”

And, despite the more sinister and grisly aspects of the story, Edgar-Jones enjoyed a lot of laughter with co-star Stan, in his latest challenging, non-Avenger role.

“Sebastian and I would be telling each other anecdotes, and then they’d yell ‘action!’ and we’d be doing the most weird scene ever,” she laughs. “And then they’d yell ‘cut!’ and we’d go straight back into chatting!”

During the shoot, she was also keeping a diary which involved writing one sentence every day. “I’m now doing my year two, so I’m writing under last year’s stuff,” she explains. “This time last year was when we were making Fresh and some of my entries made me think that, if anybody reads this, they’d think I’d gone through a lot!”

Read more: Sebastian Stan shares body dysmorphia battle

Since capturing the nation’s romantic imagination in Normal People, Edgar-Jones has appeared in the TV adaptation of War Of The Worlds, alongside Gabriel Byrne.

Her next mini series, Under The Banner Of Heaven sees her co-starring with Andrew Garfield and will air in the UK on Disney+. She’s also starring in Where The Crawdads Sing, which is scheduled for later in the year.

After hitting the headlines as Tommy Lee in Pam And Tommy, Stan appears later in the year as a conman in Apple TV’s thriller, Sharper. His next film, The Brutalist, is currently in pre-production and its heavyweight cast also includes Mark Rylance, Vanessa Kirby, Marion Cotillard and Joel Edgerton. But there’s no confirmation yet on a return to playing Bucky Barnes in the much anticipated Captain America 4.

Fresh is released on Disney+ on 18 March.