Taylor Jenkins Reid on Bringing to Life the ‘Daisy Jones & The Six’ Characters in Her Novel | SXSW 2023

Sam Claflin, Josh Whitehouse, Sebastian Chacon, Nabiyah Be and Taylor Jenkins Reid joined The Hollywood Reporter in its SXSW Studio to discuss bringing Reid’s novel Daisy Jones & The Six to the small screen at South by Southwest on Saturday.

The Amazon Prime Video original series, which follows the rise and fall of the titular band in the 1970s, is produced by Hello Sunshine and also stars Riley Keough, Camila Morrone, Suki Waterhouse, Will Harrison, Tom Wright and Timothy Olyphant.

Reid shared that the cast “replaced” the images she had of the characters she came up with six years ago while writing the novel, which was released in 2019. “It feels so good because, as an author, it’s a very solitary experience,” she told THR during the Austin festival. “It’s me and my computer and then, like, me calling my husband in four times a day to be like, ‘Is this a good idea?’”

“To get to share these characters with you guys, for you to bring something else to them and for me to understand that, like, they’re not just mine, they’re yours too. It just feels really good,” Reid continued. “It’s an experience I hadn’t had before, but I cherish it.”

Claflin later recalled auditioning for the role of Billy Dunne when most of the cast had already been hired. “I had no idea what it was about and didn’t know it was a novel at the time,” he said about the show.

During the audition process, Claflin had to show off his vocal range and “butchered” a cover of Elton John’s “Your Song.” However, he won over Reid when he performed a scene in which his character refused to pick up his newborn daughter for the first time after returning home from rehab.

“I saw a lot of auditions for Billy over a long period of time,” Reid explained. “I watched that scene and cried. And that was when I was like, ‘They’ll figure out if you can sing or not.’ I don’t care.”

Check out the full THR conversation in the player above.