BURNING BRIGHT No longer the next big thing, with a clutch of films coming out, Felicity Jones is now getting all the attention she deserves. By Jane Cornwell.

sl • 8 ometimes, when being Felicity a headache, visions and amnesia. saleswoman who met while working on SJones gets too much, Felicity Jones “I HAVEN’T Jones’ character Brooks, a lab-coat- the local newspaper and split when she likes to wander down to Hampstead wearing environmentalist, is quickly was three. Felicity and her elder brother, Heath, the ancient park that is one of HAD TO Langdon’s right-hand woman, racing a $lm editor whose wife hails from London’s best-loved green spaces. !en, with him across Europe to a) help him Brisbane (“Briz Vegas? Ha! !at’s so with her back against the trunk of her SACRIFICE recover his memory and b) quash a funny”), were brought up by their mum. favourite old oak tree, she’ll take out deadly virus aimed at wiping out half “I was raised to live in the moment.” her sketchpad and draw. TOO MUCH the world’s (over) population. Currently splitting her time between “!ey tend to be slightly abstract, Brooks isn’t what she seems, of course. north London and Brooklyn, New York, usually terrible pieces of artistic Nothing is. !is time the clues are to be Jones’ crisp vowels belie her consonant- endeavour,” says the petite actress, PRIVACY found in Dante Alighieri’s epic 14th dropping Brummie origins, which are 32, sitting in a suite in a posh London century poem about his journey through obvious, she says, once she’s had a drink hotel and looking every inch the English AND hell, which Langdon and Brooks pore or three and o"er scope “to be teased if rose in a royal-blue jumpsuit with pu" over in galleries and on laptops, and I ever got a big head”. sleeves and a #oppy bow collar. “I just ANONYMITY which is visualised via a series of cryptic Success, creatively speaking, came sketch to relax and only when I’m at psychedelic dream sequences conjured early, after a 10-year-old Jones began home. It’s nice doing something creative TO DO WHAT on hand-held cameras by Academy attending after-school workshops held with absolutely no pressure.” Award-winning director Ron Howard. by Central Junior Television, an !e Oscar nominee has been I DO. WHICH “Ron’s style of shooting here is much in#uential youth drama group. !ere rather under the pump of late, what more immediate than his other Dan was a part in a children’s TV series with a clutch of $lms about to come IS GREAT Brown $lms. Shooting in real locations” and the $lm !e Treasure Seekers with out, a veritable showroom’s worth of – including the medieval piazzas of Keira Knightley (18 months her junior). red-carpet events to attend and a BECAUSE Florence and on the roof of the Basilica And for over a decade, from the age constant stream of scripts vying for of San Marco in Venice – “matched the of 15 and right through her English her interest. Long hailed as the next big I LOVE tone of the $lm and made it this very literature degree at Oxford, she played thing, Jones is $nally an A-lister to be pertinent situation we’re facing today wild child Emma Grundy in much- reckoned with. But her forthcoming WHAT I DO.” with climate change and overpopulation. loved BBC Radio series !e Archers. “It’s roles as, variously, Dr Sienna Brooks in One reason I took on the $lm is because a British institution, and where I learnt the movie adaptation of Dan Brown’s it felt so current.” my craft,” she says. Inferno, rebel $ghter Jyn Erso in Star Howard’s immersive rehearsal Since then she’s hopped from period Wars spin-o" Rogue One, and a young techniques dovetailed with those of drama (Brideshead Revisited) and mother in the big-bucks fantasy drama Jones, a method actor who goes deep Shakespeare (!e Tempest) to the A Monster Calls, look set to give her the into researching her characters, building romantic comedy Chalet Girl (for sort of shimmering fame she doesn’t them from the inside out. Brown’s which she spent months learning how seem to want or need. book, which gives Brooks a backstory to snowboard) and 2011’s entirely “It’s a side of the profession you don’t as a former child prodigy with a improvised coming-of-age drama Like ever quite get used to, though I know formidable IQ , was used as a reference, Crazy. !ere’s been a mystery thriller it’s a two-way thing,” says Jones, an a springboard. (True Story), a role as Charles Dickens’ Oxford University graduate, when “We had months of reading through mistress (!e Invisible Woman) and asked how it feels to be feted and the script and making changes and another as a mysterious assistant in fawned over. “But the people who correcting mistakes in rehearsal, so !e Amazing Spider-Man 2. come up are so polite. !e letters you I felt part of a family.” She pauses, Oh, and she’s also done theatre, get have such genuine feeling.” grins. “But the day before any shoot including Michael Grandage’s She smiles charmingly, revealing is always vomit inducing.” production of Luise Miller, by 18th those ever-so-slightly buck teeth. Watching Hanks at work helped century German playwright Friedrich “I haven’t had to sacri$ce too much to keep Jones grounded. “Tom is Schiller, at the Donmar Warehouse in privacy and anonymity to do what I do. always absolutely focused and there’s London in 2011 (Jones turned down the Which is great, because I love what I no messing around on set; his priority lead alongside Julia Roberts in the $lm do” – the self-e"acing Jones has referred is making the best $lm possible. Mirror Mirror to do it). to acting as a calling – “and I want to “He’s also incredibly down to Too versatile to be typecast, too keep doing it.” earth,” she says, her green eyes wide talented to be ignored (and with her We are here to talk about Inferno, the with admiration. “He never takes any Holly Golightly looks, too beautiful latest addition to the $1.2 billion Robert of his fame or success for granted.” – she’s been the face of both Burberry Langdon franchise after !e Da Vinci Neither, indeed, does Felicity Rose and Dolce & Gabbana), Jones has Code (2006) and Angels & Demons Hadley Jones, who grew up Bournville, quietly commanded more and more (2009). Tom Hanks reprises his role as an upscale suburb of Birmingham in the of our attention. the famous symbologist, who this time English Midlands, the second of two Her 2014 portrayal of Jane Hawking Photography by David Slijper. Stylist: Leith Clark. Hair: Raphael Salley. Make-up: Janeen Witherspoon; outfit. Felicity wears McQ black shirt silk wears and black pinafore kilt Felicity outfit. Witherspoon; Janeen Make-up: Salley. Raphael Hair: LeithStylist: Clark. Slijper. David by Photography around wakes in an Italian hospital with children born to a journalist and a in the $lm !e !eory of Everything sl • 8 sl •9 (alongside her friend Eddie Redmayne six phrases in Italian that will be as famous physicist Stephen Hawking) totally useless in real life. Maybe got her nods from the Academy Awards, at parties they’ll be useful to bring the Golden Globes and Britain’s out; I could do some kung fu while BAFTAs. And little wonder: Jones’ speaking Italian, then if it’s snowing performance as the woman who cares leave on my snowboard.” for Hawking and his three children All of which would certainly leave as his motor neurone disease progresses potential suitors awe-struck, should and his scienti$c celebrity increases, Jones be the slightest bit interested. Her is a master class in roiling, $nely last documented relationship was with nuanced emotion. sought-after British sculptor and internet “I’m obsessed with subtexts,” she told artist Ed Fornieles, with whom she split !e Guardian newspaper. “I love that we in 2013 after a 10-year relationship. don’t often say what we feel. !e gap His response was to create a kitsch between the two … I like it when actors illustration of himself and Jones and reveal a lot without having to say it.” their three imaginary children in front Just as she likes being tested, forced of a suburban home. “You’re also out on a limb, as she was when $lming mourning the death of the future you Rogue One with maverick British were going to have with that person,” director, Gareth Edwards: “He loves to Fornieles told the London Evening bring the improvisation process to his Standard at the time. FIVE FACTS “AS AN ACTOR YOU FELICITY JONES GET VERY SKILLED AT Having met Lena Dunham a few OBSCURE THINGS YOU years ago while Dunham was promoting her !lm Tiny Furniture MAY NEVER USE AGAIN. and Jones was promoting Like Crazy, Jones did a cameo in Girls in 2013. “It was the biggest ‘pinch me’ FOR INFERNO I LEARNT moment,” she has said. ABOUT SIX PHRASES IN In 2012 there was an online campaign to have Jones cast as ITALIAN THAT WILL BE the lead in 50 Shades of Grey. TOTALLY USELESS She turned the role down. IN REAL LIFE.” She’s a fashion junkie. “I’ve always loved fashion. I had my monthly subscription to Vogue and style $lms and often holds the camera “I have had love and lost love,” Top: Felicity Jones (seated, at left) with co-star magazines like !e Face. Now I’ve himself, changing position depending Jones, ever digni$ed, told Britain’s Tom Hanks and director Ron Howard on the set been on the cover of Vanity Fair, on what the actors are doing and trying !e Telegraph. “I learnt so much from of Inferno. Above: with !eory of Everything which is surreal.” to $nd something unexpected and that relationship and I am glad that co-star Eddie Redmayne at the Toronto spontaneous in the moment.” person was very, very important to International Film Festival, 2014. Even in the kung fu scenes? !at me and I had him in my life.” After starring in and producing a short !lm – 2013’s Emily, with her buck-toothed smile. “Even in the If Jones is seeing anyone now, friend Caroline Harvey – she’d love kung fu scenes,” she says. she’s not saying. She’d rather talk to direct her own !lm. “My brother Jones underwent intensive daily about art. “I’ve loved art since school, is a !lm editor and it’s so much a part martial arts sessions to prepare for her where I had this great teacher who of our family, that process from role, making kung fu another specialised was very glamorous and would show beginning to end. I’m fascinated by it.” skill in a career $lled with them. “I’ve us paintings by contemporary artists never done anything anywhere near like Georgia O’Keefe and encourage Her favourite Australian actor is that level of physical preparation for us to just get out there and draw.” Guy Pearce, with whom she worked something,” she says, “which was partly Speaking of which, might there on the acclaimed 2013 romantic why I wanted to do it. be an exhibition – works on paper by drama Breathe In. “Such a great “As an actor you get very skilled at Felicity Jones, say – in the pipeline? actor!” she enthuses. “So grounded these obscure things that you may never “Ha, no way.” She #ashes a grin. and focused on doing good work, and use again. For Inferno I learnt about “Acting is more than enough.” • not at all interested in being famous.” Pictures Sony Images; Getty by Photography

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