Making Delia Owens’ bestselling book Where the Crawdads Sing into a film of the same name took a powerhouse like Reese Witherspoon, who cast Daisy Edgar-Jones as Kya, the Marsh Girl – ostracized by a small town and accused of murder. Reese then roped in none other than Taylor Swift to contribute a song.

“I just couldn’t put it down,” notes Golden Globe winner Witherspoon, according to the press notes, of the book by Delia Owens. “I fell in love with Kya, a little girl growing up in a very rural area, shunned by society, and trying to find a way to just survive. The experiences she has with the two men in her life (Taylor John Smith as Tate Walker, and Harris Dickinson as Chase Andrews) are both so touching but also terrifying.” Witherspoon brought the weight of her billion-dollar production company, Hello Sunshine, to bear in acquiring the script, and then set about producing it, using women in most key positions from executives on down to department heads. Olivia Newman directs the film.

Swift, too, was a fan of the book independently, and had her people contact Witherspoon alerting them to Swift’s song, “Carolina,” which incorporates so many of the haunting elements of the movie. The eleven-time Grammy Award winner used instruments from the 1950s, the book’s era, in creating “Carolina.”

“I got absolutely lost in the book when I read it years ago,” says Swift. “As soon as I heard there was a film in the works starring the incredible Daisy Edgar-Jones I knew I wanted to be a part of it from the musical side. I wrote the song “Carolina” alone and asked my friend Aaron Dessner to produce it. I wanted to create something haunting and ethereal to match this mesmerizing story.”

Set in the marshlands of North Carolina, Where the Crawdads Sing tracks the life of a young woman who is abandoned and abused. As a girl, she is left to fend for herself in the marshes when her family leave her, departing one at a time. Hardy and innovative, the intrepid girl turns to nature to heal and comfort her, while living off the land and trading skills for sustenance with the local trading store, where she finds friendship. Taunted and bullied as the “Marsh Girl,” Kya discovers love, but is accused of murder when one of the townspeople is found dead. Through the trial that follows we discover her tale. Director of photography Polly Morgan has created fertile and evocative vistas of water, sky and nature.

Elizabeth Gabler, with her team at 3000 Pictures, a division of Sony Pictures Entertainment, has a footprint in bringing books to the silver screen. She has successfully developed and produced such films as The Devil Wears Prada, The Fault in Our Stars, Love, Simon, The Hate U Give, Hidden Figures, and Life of Pi.

Gabler explains her attraction to the book and the inspiration she hopes the movie will generate. “I think that Where the Crawdads Sing is something that people have been waiting for, for a long time,” Gabler says. “It is a story of hope in a world that needs hope, and a story of survival in a world that needs a story of survival.”

Indeed, it was the feisty nature of the main character that attracted Daisy Edgar-Jones. “I love now resilient Kya is,” notes the star, who also appeared in Normal People in 2020 and Under The Banner of Heaven this year.

“Kya goes on trial for murder, yet she continues to show incredible strength, and maintains her quiet curiosity and connection with the natural world,” Edgar-Jones says. She quotes Kya expressing an emotion that is at the heart of the character. “Kya says, ‘There’s no dark side to nature, just inventive ways to endure,’” The star continues, “Having suffered so much abuse from her family and people leaving her, the one thing that always stuck was nature. It’s always there for her and I think nature became her family.”

That understanding of character was part of Edgar-Jones’ strength, says Witherspoon. “She can morph herself into so many different characters. You feel her vulnerability and her ferocity in this performance – a performance that sometimes is very, very small and internal, and other times is rage-filled and ferocious. There’s no artifice, there’s no lying, she just becomes the character. And I have to say, I’m pretty tough on Southern accents, and Daisy just fell into it so beautifully, with a real respect for the language and the way that Delia wrote.”

There was no “just falling” into the part for Edgar-Jones: she read the book multiple times and took copious notes. She also worked with a voice coach to perfect the accent and changed the register of Kya’s voice as she matured from 15 to twenty-three. But it didn’t stop there. Those familiar with the book know that Kya is a talented artist. There are scenes that incorporate Kay’s artistic ability, and the British-born actor was determined to get these right. Kirby Feagan, the film’s Art Director, who herself created most of Kya’s paintings, worked closely with her on this.

“We drew a couple of shells,” says Edgar-Jones. “We went to City Park and she taught me to work out how to bring a beautiful feather to life on one piece of paper. It’s quite something.”

Nature is a character throughout Where the Crawdads Sing, including in the costume design – look for an upcoming in-depth analysis of the wardrobe created by Mirren Gordon-Crozier.