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Conversations With Friends is the second Sally Rooney novel to be adapted to the small screen, following in the footsteps of Normal People. The 12-part series on Hulu and BBC follows the story of 21-year-old Dublin college student Frances (played by Alison Oliver), who begins an affair with married man Nick Conway (Joe Alwyn).
The pair met through his wife Melissa (Jemima Kirke), a hugely successful author who is a fan of Frances and her ex-girlfriend/current best friend Bobbi's (Sasha Lane) poetry.
Melissa is played by Sex Education and Girls star Jemima Kirke, who spoke to Newsweek all about Melissa's acceptance of Frances and Nick's romance, the importance of marriage to Melissa, and whether Melissa deliberately tried to sabotage Nick and Frances' relationship.
When Melissa learns of Frances and Nick's affair, she handles it entirely differently than expected, Nick shares with Frances.
Instead of acting with explosive anger, Melissa, to an extent, is understanding and you could say, supportive, of Nick and Frances's relationship. She even thanks Frances (albeit through gritted teeth) for making her husband the happiest he has ever been after suffering a year of depression.
It was also revealed Melissa herself had an affair with Nick's best friend a year or two before, but she called it off to be with her husband, which may make her reaction to Nick's infidelity on the one hand, surprising and on the other hand, not at all, especially when you add in the fact she kisses Bobbi at her party.
"It Was Sabotaging"
Towards the end of the series, Melissa invites Frances and Bobbi over for dinner, fully aware that her husband is in love with Frances and continues to see her. For everybody involved, the entire event is so uncomfortable, particularly when Melissa is left alone with Frances.
It was a little unclear whether Melissa is trying to make an effort with Frances by discussing their similarities (like having an alcoholic father) or if she is actually trying to undermine her relationship with Nick.
Speaking to Newsweek, actress Kirke confirmed it was the latter and why.
She said: "I think it was sabotaging. I think she'd been so gentle with her up until that point, and so accommodating and sort of just inviting and treating her with kid gloves. I think she just took the kid gloves off. She's like, 'F*** it. You want to be you and you want to see what this man, then you're gonna have to be a bit tougher. And whether that means tough in that I'm gonna treat you like an equal now and if you want to be in a relationship with him, then you're gonna have to recognize the moments that are not romantic, that are just dealing with a difficult man and this is who he really is, and can you handle that? Because I can.'
"I think it's her way of saying, 'I'm stronger than you. And do you have what it takes?'"
In the final episode, Frances and Melissa also have an intense phone call, where Melissa is completely honest with Frances about how she has disrupted her and Nick's marriage, and then by subsequently calling things off with Nick, she has completely destroyed him.
Nick's depression only leaves Melissa between a rock and a hard place as she is willing to support Nick and Frances's relationship, as she wants to see the love of her life happy but also wants to be the one to make him happy, too.
"In Limbo"
Inevitably, the character of Melissa is a little misunderstood. Kirke shared her thoughts on why Melissa wants her and Nick to work things out and her reason for staying, despite audiences thinking Nick and Melissa maybe are not right together.
She said: "We never see them together alone, at all. Which is a shame. I would have loved to have done that, but I think it was fun in a way to have to make that up for myself. I realized that there had to be a reason for them staying together that was more than just 'We're married, we have to stay together because we're married,' because that doesn't make sense for a person like Melissa. She doesn't seem like someone who values marriage inherently. I think that she has to have a reason for staying, and so I found a way that they support each other and they love each other.
"Also, I think that Melissa when meeting her is in a precarious position of essentially auditioning for her husband, where she's like, 'please keep me,' and she's waiting she's in limbo waiting for them and for him to say the word. But the frustrating thing is Nick never says the word and neither does Frances. That's the other thing that contrasts Bobbi and Melissa against Frances and Nick—that Bobbi and Melissa say things, they say what's happening, they talk about a pink elephant in the room. And Frances and Nick do the opposite. They speak around the elephant."
The Ending
At the end of the series, it seems like Melissa and Nick have their marriage back on track. But when Nick makes an accidental phone call to Frances, things take an unexpected turn.
After an emotional conversation, where Nick confesses to Frances he has an "impulse" to be near her "all of the time" and Frances instructs Nick to come and pick her up, it looks like their affair may be back on the cards.
Like the book, the series concluded with a pretty open ending, with audiences left to make up their own minds about what happens next. Will Nick and Frances get back together? Will Melissa and Bobbi find out? Will everybody go their separate ways?
Kirke shared her thoughts on what she would like to see happen next. In their fictional world, the actress would like to see Nick and Melissa make things work, whatever that means.
She said: "In terms of Melissa, I think I would like to see more of their [Nick and Melissa's] relationship work out whatever that looks like for Melissa and Nick. Even if that looks like Frances being involved because it didn't work what they did in the whole series, we didn't see a moment where it worked.
"I would like to see a moment of it working or whether that means that Frances is out. I would just like to see their relationship and see what it looks like for their relationship to be functional."
Conversations With Friends is streaming on Hulu and the BBC iPlayer now.
About the writer
Molli Mitchell is a Senior SEO TV and Film Newsweek Reporter based in London, UK. Her focus is reporting on ... Read more