Daisy Jones and The Six Cast on Creating Bonds Off-Screen
Daisy Jones & the Six is taking center stage this award season.
After readers fell in love with the fictional (and slightly dysfunctional) rock band at the center of Taylor Jenkins Reid’s bestselling novel, Amazon Prime Video’s highly anticipated adaptation premiered in March, bringing the complicated love triangle between lead singers Billy Dunne (Sam Claflin) and Daisy Jones (Riley Keough) and Billy’s wife Camila (Camila Morrone) to life.
The cast’s performances were so moving, in fact, that they’ve been recognized by several award shows, including the Golden Globes. That’s right, the show earned a nod for Best Limited Series, Anthology Series or Television Motion Picture category, while Riley was recognized in the Best Female Actor – Limited Series, Anthology Series or Television Motion Picture category and Sam was nominated for Best Male Actor – Limited Series, Anthology Series or Television Motion Picture.
And that’s not all! The show was also recognized by the Emmy Awards, earning a total of six nominations.
As in the book, there was a lot of sex, drugs and rock ‘n’ roll and fans got to hear The Six’s music brought to life, with many of Reid’s original lyrics included. But that doesn’t mean the show—which was executive-produced by Reese Witherspoon—didn’t make any changes to the source material that documents the band’s epic rise and mysterious fall in the ’70s.
Noticeable changes made in the final batch of episodes? A major death in the book doesn’t happen, a climactic conversation between Daisy and Camila is M.I.A., and Daisy’s scary overdose gets a different treatment. But, in its boldest move, the show fully went there with Billy and Daisy, though the pair never even kissed in Reid’s book. Oh, we’re definitely looking at them now.
Here are the biggest changes Daisy Jones & the Six made in its journey from page to screen:
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When Daisy Met Billy
Like in Taylor Jenkins Reid’s 2019, novel, Daisy Jones (Riley Keough) and Billy Dunne (Sam Claflin) meet for the first time in a recording studio when she is brought in to duet with him in the Daisy Jones & the Six TV series. However, the circumstances are slightly different in Amazon Prime Video’s adaptation. Firstly, The Six has already recorded their sophomore album in the book, having never been dropped from their label like in the show.
But the biggest change is also a subtle one: Daisy doesn’t rewrite the lyrics of the love song, just alters the way she sings them, making “questions as opposed to statements,” per Billy on the page. Their initial—and climactic—introduction is just as tense and thrilling in both versions and is a defining moment for the band, not to mention a sober Billy.
“Billy was writing songs trying to tell himself he had got it all under control,” keyboardist Karen says in the book. “And in about two minutes of singing, Daisy pulled the tablecloth from under his dishes.”
After their recording session, a concerned Billy calls his wife Camila (Camila Morrone) to tell her it was a “horrible” experience, despite everyone in the studio acknowledging they witnessed something special. In the book, the singer also complains to Camila, who tells him, “It’s not real life, Billy. It’s a song. Don’t get bent out of shape.”
However, “I couldn’t get over it,” Billy explains. “I did not like that Daisy turned those lines into questions and I didn’t like that she had felt the right to do it.”
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Look at “Honeycomb” Now
Fans of the book will find some of the lyrics of the infamous song that brings Daisy and The Six together nowhere to be found including, “Will the life we want wait for us?/Will we live to see the lights coming off the bay?/Will you hold me, will you hold me until that day?”
For the adaptation, the showrunners turned to Blake Mills and Marcus Mumford to bring the track to life, which included changing the lines: “We unraveled a long time ago / We lost and we couldn’t let it go / I wish it was easy, but it isn’t so / So, baby / Oh, we could make a good thing bad.”
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Daisy Jones’ Early Career
Prior to recording “Honeycomb” with Billy at the end of episode three, the TV version of Daisy had never been in a recording studio before. However, in the novel, she had already recorded her debut album, First, and was also signed to the same record label as The Six (though she was almost sued for breach of contract when she initially refused to record any songs she hadn’t written herself).
Speaking of that first collaboration between Billy and Daisy, the idea in both versions comes from music producer Teddy Price (Tom Wright), though he doesn’t ask Daisy to re-write the song in the book. Instead, he tasks with Billy turning it into a duet before giving him a list of female singers to choose from, which included Daisy, whom he had never heard of, but his brother and lead guitarist Graham (Will Harrison) had seen perform.
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Billy and Camila’s Meet-Cute
Billy and Camila’s love story begins unexpectedly when the pair are both at a laundromat and she asks to borrow his basket. But in the book, Billy asks for Camila’s number when he spots her working as a cocktail waitress in the hotel lobby bar after the band performs at a wedding. What remains the same is that it’s love at first sight for Billy, who promises to write songs for Camila in both versions.
However, while in the show Camila initially joins the band when they decide to move to Los Angeles and serves as their photographer, she originally chooses to break up with Billy after he delivers the news that he is leaving Pittsburgh. But when The Six signs their record deal, Billy calls Camila and proposes to her, saying, “Come on out here, honey, let’s get hitched.”
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Billy’s Big Decision
Like in the book, Billy goes to rehab on the same day his first daughter, Julia, is born. But in the TV series, his decision is made after Teddy goes to the hospital to visit Camila, who tells the producer to issue an ultimatum to her husband: “He can start to be a father this second or he’s going to rehab. Now.”
Billy goes on to meet his child for the first time when she is “63 days old,” he recalls in Reid’s book, though their first meeting happens outside of his treatment facility, with Billy expressing his commitment to the two ladies in his life.
“I fell to my knees. I was just so grateful to Camila,” Billy explains. “I told her then that I would spend the rest of our life together trying to be twice as good as I deserved. I submitted myself to her then. Forever and always. My daughter, too. I dedicated myself to both of them, to raising this girl with my whole heart.”
While Billy returns to the band immediately, the front man initially chooses to quit the music industry altogether after becoming sober in the show.
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Warren’s Heritage
While Warren’s original last name is Rhodes, it’s changed to Rojas in the show, with the quirky drummer played by Sebastian Chacon. In an interview with the Insider, Chacon revealed he asked the showrunners to incorporate his Latin roots into the character.
“I did a lot of research trying to see if there was a white, American band that had a Latin anything. And they don’t. There’s like, one or two — Slayer in the ’80s had a Cuban drummer, New York Dolls had a Colombian drummer,” Chacon explained, referring to David Lombardo and Billy Murcia, respectively. “But it’s not common, so I wanted that to be a part of it somehow and I didn’t wanna necessarily erase this special thing.”
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Simone’s Sexuality
Unlike the book, Daisy Jones’ best friend and singer Simone Jackson (Nabiyah Be), who goes on to become a disco pioneer, is explicitly queer and has a love interest, Bernie (Ayesha Harris).
“I think it was a great addition because gay people created disco music,” Be told The Insider. “It was part of the movement, it was part of why the music was so relevant. So making Simone a queer character and having her be the pioneer, the face, and one of the fundamental aspects of this genre coming to life, I thought was super important.”
On the page, Simone also serves as a mentor to Daisy after they meet on the dance floor at the Troubadour. But when Daisy briefly moves in with her, Simone tells the then 15-year-old that her one condition is that Daisy must go to high school.
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Missing Members
While he doesn’t offer to participate in the novel’s present-day documentary-style interviews, bassist Pete Loving is one of the band’s original members and remains in the group for a long time. However, he is scrapped entirely from the set list on the show.
“When you adapt things for television, changes inevitably happen, but this one didn’t stress us out too much,” showrunner Scott Neustadter told Time. “The Pete character serves a function in the novel, but he doesn’t have much to say, he’s not the most dramatic. I hope everyone, especially the Pete stans, forgive us after they watch the show. So RIP Pete, but I do think there’s a little bit of him embodied in some of our other characters.”
Pete’s role as the sixth member of The Six is given to Billy’s girlfriend and eventual wife Camila. “It’s an accurate assessment that she is really a part of them,” Neustadter explained. “They are a family.”
And the character’s absence slightly alters the origin story for Eddie Roundtree (Josh Whitehouse), who is Pete’s younger brother that joins the group after their original rhythmic guitarist Chuck is drafted into the military to fight in the Vietnam War. In the show, Chuck quits the band to go to college to become a dentist.
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Daisy and Camila’s First Meeting
Knowing the band would be better with Daisy in it, Camila decides to invite Daisy to a party at her and Billy’s home without his knowledge. This move ultimately leads to the impromptu sing-along that solidifies Daisy’s position in the band.
In the book, the two women in Billy’s life first cross paths when Daisy is opening for The Six on tour.
“The first time I met Daisy Jones, I did not know what to think of her,” Camila recalls. “She seemed really scattered but also very sweet. I knew Billy didn’t like her, but I also didn’t think his opinion meant I couldn’t have my own.”
Daisy also meets Billy’s daughter Julia, who she sweetly calls “chickadee.”
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How Graham and Karen Got Together
On screen, it took Graham getting a new love interest—the Barry Manilow-loving Caroline (Olivia Rose Keegan)—for Karen to finally realize she had feelings for her bandmate, which kicks off their secret romance.
In the novel, the keyboardist and guitarist get together when The Six is on tour in Europe, with Karen calling Graham from her hotel room to ask why he had never made a move on her. “I don’t take shots I know I’ll miss,” he says, to which Karen responds, “I don’t think you’ll miss, Dunne.” And so begins their relationship.
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Billy and Daisy’s First Kiss
Arguably one of the biggest changes made in the series is that passionate parking lot makeout session in episode six, which Billy claims happened so he could get Daisy in the right emotional headspace to record “More Fun to Miss.”
However, in the book, their simmering chemistry is far more subtle, with the collaborators’ lips barely grazing during a writing session before Billy says he can’t. “I lost myself, I think,” he explains. “For a moment, at least.”
For Daisy, it’s a defining moment, explaining in the book how she felt “so embarrassed and so stupid and so alone and lonely and pathetic and dirty and awful.” But then she gets “really mad,” which inspires her to write the the searing anthem “Regret Me” while driving on the Pacific Coast Highway (although she doesn’t get in a car accident like she does on-screen).
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The Album Cover
In the show, the photos used for the band’s Aurora album cover end up coming from Camila, who photographs a private heated exchange between Daisy and Billy during the shoot—just days after they kissed for the first time.
A shot of just the two singers is also used in the book—much to the rest of the members’ dismay—but it is taken by a photographer, Freddie Mendoza, who picked up on the “electric” tension between Billy and Daisy. The photograph that ends up leading to the iconic album art is a close-up of their chests angled towards each other, where you can see a vial of coke in her pocket.
“It was America,” Freddie explains. “It was tits. It was sex. It was drugs. It was summer. It was angst. It was rock ‘n’ roll.”
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Camila and Eddie’s Affair
After his complicated relationship with Daisy consumes Billy’s time and energy, a frustrated Camila decides to go out on her own in the series, ultimately finding herself with Eddie, who has harbored a crush on her since they first met. “I’d choose you over everyone,” Eddie tells Camila at the bar.
In the book, it’s also hinted at that Camila cheated on Billy, but not with one of his bandmates. Her alleged affair partner is a guy she went to high school with.
“She said to me, ‘I’m gonna go get lunch with Gary Egan,'” Billy recalls. “And she went and got lunch with him and she was gone for four hours. No one eats lunch for four hours.”
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Daisy’s Prince
Daisy’s first husband is switched from Niccolo Argento, an Italian Prince she meets in Thailand, to Nicky Fitzpatrick, an Irish royal she falls in love with after she books a trip to Greece to get away from Billy. Aside from changing his name and heritage, Niccolo is much more supportive and amiable. (At least at first…)
In the book, Nicky is possessive and jealous, with Simone explaining he was “amplifying all of her bad instincts” and “validating every impulse.”
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The Royal Wedding
In the show, Daisy says she will never regret her Grecian wedding day, which is attended by Nicky’s friends and Simone and Bernie.
But it’s a much more rushed affair in the novel: Daisy and Nicky are in Florence when he suggests they get married, so they fly to Rome and are wed by one of his family friends who happens to be a priest. “We said I was Catholic,” Daisy says. “I lied to a Catholic priest.”
After Simone (who was not present for their nuptials) finds Daisy by calling her friend’s credit card company and pretending to be her. Ultimately, Simone is able to convince Daisy to return to L.A. for her music career, but does so by “dragging her ass home.” The two do not have a falling out—which culminates with Daisy asking Simone if she’s in love with her—as they do in the TV series.
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Daisy’s Big Chop
Known for her long flowing red tresses, Daisy shocks everyone when she impulsively decides to cut her hair into a shaggy bob while in Rome for her impromptu wedding. “That was a great haircut,” Daisy recalls in the book,. “I’ve always said, ‘The Italians know hair.'” Even Simone, who flew across the globe to track down her friend, later admits, “It was a really good haircut.”
However, Daisy never cuts her hair in the show.
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Billy and Camila’s Other Kids Are M.I.A.
By the time Daisy Jones and the Six become the biggest group in the world in Reid’s novel, Billy and Camila have twins, Susana and Maria, in addition to their first child, Julia. In the series, the pair only have Julia.
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Daisy’s Big Scare
While episode eight ended up with Daisy overdosing in a hotel room and being left in the shower by her husband Nicky, the pair had a different emergency in the book, almost burning down the entire building when he falls asleep with a cigarette in his hand. “I woke up because of the heat next to my face,” Daisy recalls. “Singed my hair. I had to put out the flames with the extinguisher I found in the closest.”
Still, Daisy does almost die from her drug addiction, though Billy doesn’t come into save her. Rather, she comes to the realization that her relationship with Nicky is dangerous after she overdosed on Seconals while they were on vacation in Rome and he did nothing to save her. “My husband believed I might die,” Daisy explains. “And he didn’t so much as call the concierge. He wasn’t going to kill me, but he would let me die.”
After he goes to sleep, Daisy packs her things and leaves Rome, leaving him a message at the front desk that she would like a divorce.
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Teddy’s Death
As the band is celebrating their big performance on Saturday Night Live in episode nine, they receive the bad news that their band manager Teddy has suffered a heart attack. While Teddy makes a recovery on the show, he wasn’t quite so lucky in the book, ultimately dying and sending Billy, who viewed the music legend as a father figure, into a tailspin.
“It just knocked the wind right out of me,” Billy explains. “The very first thought in my head was, ‘Why did I throw the booze out the window?'”
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Simone’s Ending
Daisy’s disco diva BFF ultimately ended up opening a popular night club, Haven, with her girlfriend Bernie after turning down a record deal.
In the book, Simone went on to leave the music industry, marry a man and have a daughter Trina, who would go on to become a major pop star who samples her mom’s old music. “She’s a boss,” Simone boasts. “Damn right, my baby’s killing the game.”
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Billy’s Relapse
After Camila tells Billy she’s going to leave him after catching an intimate moment between him and Daisy, Billy quickly spirals in the finale, breaking his sobriety at the hotel bar ahead of the band’s notorious final performance in Chicago. He goes on to snort cocaine and drink during the concert, eventually deciding to check back into rehab after the band falls apart.
The rocker also relapses in the book, but in a much quieter way, having a drink by himself at the bar. After having several sips of tequila, Billy puts the glass down after a fan asks about his family. “It wasn’t easy,” he says of stopping. “I fought for every inch. But I did it.”
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Billy and Daisy’s Doomed Romance
While the lead singers never kiss in the book, with their longing being expressed through their loaded looks during performances, their relationship is just as complicated in the show. At the end of episode nine, Billy says he wants to be with Daisy, but can’t leave Camila. “Can’t this be enough?” he asks, not realizing Camila overhears this conversation.
Once he is confronted by Camila, Billy angrily tells Daisy they will never be together, only to passionately kiss her during their final concert together. However, once Daisy realizes that Billy is no longer sober and he tells her, “Let’s just be broken together,” she encourages him to go back to Camila, letting him leave the stage during their encore of “Look At Us Now.”
“I’ve been in love and it hurts,” Daisy tells the crowd. “But it doesn’t have to. Love doesn’t have to be bombs and tears and blood. Love can be peace and it can be beautiful. And if you’re lucky enough to find somebody who lifts you up, even when you don’t deserve it, that’s where the light is.”
Like in the book, Daisy quits the band and checks into rehab. However, her decision is solely due to Camila confronting her after the concert about her relationship with Billy.
“She said, ‘Daisy he loves you, You know that he loves you. I know that he loves you. But he’s not going to leave me,'” Daisy recalls of their encounter. “Camila said, ‘You need to leave this band…but whatever you decide to do, just know that I’m rooting for you. I want you to get clean, take care of yourself.'”
It is that conversation that inspires Daisy to seek treatment. “It was the very best thing I’ve ever done,” she says. “It is how I saved myself. Because [Camila] saved me from myself.”
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Camila’s Death and That Final Scene
Remaining true to the source material, the show delivers its biggest twist when it’s revealed that the person behind the camera who has been interviewing everyone for the documentary is Billy and Camila’s daughter, Julia.
While in both iterations Camila has passed since filming her segment—she dies at the age of 63 from heart failure, a complication of lupus, in the book—she makes one final ask of Billy on-camera in the show: To go see Daisy Jones. In the book, Camila sends an e-mail to her three daughters, also encouraging them to push their father to go see his former bandmate. “Her number is in my date book in the second drawer of my nightstand,” she writes. “Tell your father I said at the very least, the two of them owe me a song.”
Reid never reveals if Billy and Daisy reunited on the page, but the series’ final scene is Daisy smiling at Billy after he shows up at her home.
Daisy Jones & the Six is now streaming on Amazon Prime Video.
The 2024 Golden Globe Awards air live Sunday, Jan. 7, at 8 p.m. ET/5 p.m. PT on CBS.
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