Party Ain’ t Over Yet!
Felicity
Goes Rogue
How did Felicity Jones, 33, land the biggest role of the year, as the leader of a band of rebels in the new Star Wars film Rogue One? If her nickname Tiny Warrior is any indication, by fighting for it. By Karen Valby
Photographs by Patrick Demarchelier Fashion editor: Jillian Davison
rowing up, I always felt that the Star Wars films belonged to the boys, no matter how much I played with lightsabers or wore my hair like Princess Leia’ s. When the galaxy finally expanded to accommodate a female lead— Daisy Ridley’ s Rey— in 2015’ s The Force Awakens, I rejoiced. Now Rogue One: A Star Wars Story, which takes place 34 years prior to Rey’ s rise, thrusts another bold woman front and center: Felicity Jones’ Jyn Erso. Jones’ character is rash, assertive, and unrestrained— messy, thrilling traits that too few actresses get to tap into in big-budget action movies. Jones well understands how Jyn changes the game: As a little girl in a town outside of Birmingham, England, she dreamed not of saving planets but of playing love-struck Ariel from The Little Mermaid. Today, at age 33, the Oxfordeducated actress is officially getting her turn as a new kind of Disney princess:“ a very contemporary, kick-ass princess,” she says.
Jones has built a résumé deep with roles of take-charge women like Jyn. Last fall she played a doctor one mental leap ahead of Tom Hanks’ smarty-pants professor in Inferno; next up she’ s a mother desperate to shield her son from the ugliness of her cancer in A Monster Calls.( Her raw, intelligent performance could earn her a second Oscar nod; she received her first in 2015 for her portrayal of Jane Hawking in The Theory of Everything.) Says the selfproclaimed feminist:“ What I love in my work is showing a fullsided woman, women who are strong but flawed.”
Though Jones is blanketing the big screen, she goes unnoticed by almost everyone at the cramped London coffee shop where we meet, save the winking barista who asks me if the famous woman is“ good people.” She is. In person Jones is both impossibly lovely and pleasantly ordinary. She carries herself with a graceful oldschool reserve, protecting the privacy of her life offscreen, a decision based in her desire for audiences to immerse themselves in her films.“ When I go to the cinema, the less I know about the person, the more I can invest in them as characters,” she says. But Jones isn’ t aloof: She spoke to me with conviction about the Force, feminism, and fighting to bring brainy women to the screen.
GLAMOUR: You started acting as a kid. How did you persuade your parents to let you go on these auditions?
FELICITY JONES: They never put up huge obstacles. But there was an emphasis on getting a good education. So I would work as hard as possible at school so I could keep acting alongside. It started off as a hobby.… Most of the time I was in the background. I never played [ the Virgin ] Mary. I was always kind of the third angel.
GLAMOUR: Where did you get your work ethic? FJ: My mother [ was in advertising and ] worked incredibly ➻
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