Adapting Austen: Netflix's Persuasion with Romancing the Story

Apparently I'm one of the few people on the globe who enjoyed Netflix's Persuasion with Dakota Johnson :) I take a deep dive into this adaptation with Sarah Gamez, romance writer, filmmaker and host of Romancing the Story podcast. We chew over what the filmmakers got right and perhaps got wrong in this version. And I confess that pretty much any Jane Austen adaptation is a good adaptation for me as long as it's billed the right way.

https://www.confessionsofaclosetromantic.com

Sarah Gamez hosts the wonderful Romancing the Story: Writing Romance, Storytelling, and Business of Books podcast featuring interviews with authors and entrepreneurs discussing "storytelling structure, self-publishing must-haves, and developing narratives, while exploring different genres and medias as well as romance. After all, every story is a love story." Sarah is a marvelous interviewer and her wide-ranging discussions are fascinating.

Tony-nominated British theater director Carrie Cracknell directed this version of Persuasion, and co-writer Ron Bass,  also wrote My Best Friend's Wedding and Entrapment as well as Rain Man. Both clearly know how to stage a witty, romantic, emotional story with real stakes.

Netflix's Persuasion is a Work of Sneaky Genius. "For years, we Brits have peddled a superficial, Richard Curtis-esque version of ourselves in movie theaters across the pond in films like the Bridget Jones franchise, Love Actually, Notting Hill, and Four Weddings and a Funeral...The conceit was so effective that, really, it was only a matter of time before the Americans turned the game on its head and started serving Britishness back to us."

Book

Download a free Persuasion e-book at Project Gutenberg

Movies/TV Shows

The one and only Bridget Jones' Diary

And the one and only Phoebe Waller-Bridge, writer and star of Fleabag

And there is nothing like S1 of Bridgerton

Or the 1995 version of Persuasion

Or the 2005 Pride and Prejudice!

My, how I love me a Jane Austen adaptation. And now, only if you're brave: Netflix's Persuasion