ROGUE ONE: A STAR WARS STORY © 2016 LUCASFILM LTD. hard when she was bringing us up. She was a working mother and a working single parent. [ Jones’ parents divorced when she was a child; she lived with her mom.] That instills in you a sense of determination. But my father [ a journalist ] is a feminist as well. He talked to us about school and work, and also gave us a strong sense of identity in terms of finding, What do you want to do?
GLAMOUR: Was it important to you, even as a kid, to make your own money?
FJ: I always had a very strong sense of independence. I really liked being able to buy my Alanis Morissette Jagged Little Pill album. I wore that as a badge of honor. I love not having to rely on anyone.
GLAMOUR: Was there a character you really wanted to play as a kid?
FJ: The first film I ever saw at the cinema was The Little Mermaid, so I wanted to be Ariel. Now I am playing a Disney princess. [ Disney bought the rights to Star Wars from George Lucas in 2012.] A very contemporary, kick-ass Disney princess!
GLAMOUR: Did you watch the Star Wars films as a kid? Who introduced you to them?
FJ: My boy cousins used to sit my older brother and me down and take us through a film-studies course. It included Tremors, The Goonies, and, of course, Star Wars. That was when it began: sitting cross-legged watching as the opening crawl goes up the screen.
GLAMOUR: What was your audition process like for Jyn?
FJ: My agent called me up and said,“ There is a tremendous female lead in the new Star Wars film, and I think you’ re really going to like it.” The opportunity to play someone determined, who’ s trying to find her skills as a leader; to be in a fantasy movie; to be able to do a leading female role in a film of that scale— that’ s very, very rare.
GLAMOUR: In a Rogue One trailer, Jyn is described as reckless, aggressive, and undisciplined. Those are traits we’ ve grown accustomed to seeing in male heroes, but they aren’ t traits we usually get to see in our female heroes.
FJ: She’ s a bit of a wounded animal when you meet her. There were moments when she’ s been blown over, she’ s scrambling to get up, and she falls. It’ s important that she’ s not perfect. [ The director ] Gareth [ Edwards ] and I, we want to see her being a human being.
GLAMOUR: You could describe Han Solo using those same words.
FJ: She’ s obviously completely her own woman, but I felt like [ she ] was a rather beautiful blend of Luke Skywalker and Han Solo— and that came up in discussions around designing the costume.
GLAMOUR: She does have that Han Solo – esque belt! Gwendoline Christie, who played the first female Star Wars villain in The Force Awakens, said she loved how her character’ s costume was sort of defeminized, utilitarian. Was yours always going to be the same way, or did you have to push back against attempts to sex it up?
FJ: Not for a second. Everyone wanted to create a character that was not in any way objectified. We didn’ t want to sexualize Jyn.
GLAMOUR: So there’ s no moment where Jyn is suddenly a prisoner in a gold bikini.
FJ: No way. [ Laughs.] We don’ t even see Jyn’ s arms! That’ s not her priority. She’ s a survivor, and she has a mission to complete.
GLAMOUR: That’ s a big deal to me, as somebody who grew up on the early films— that there’ s not an eye candy moment for teenage boys to jerk off to.
FJ: Gareth said very early on,“ I want guys to watch it and be like,‘ I want to be Jyn!’” A female friend of mine said,“ I love that Jyn looks how we look, with trousers and a long-sleeved top.” We aren’ t in hot pants. When do women walk around wearing hot pants?
GLAMOUR: Rarely. In the first big trailer, five of the 10 lines of dialogue are spoken by women, suggesting that the year’ s biggest tentpole passes the Bechdel test [ which rates films based on whether two female characters talk to each other about something other than a man ]. Were your feminist needs met by this movie?
FJ: I’ ve always been a feminist, and what I love in my work is being able to explore a full-sided woman and not patronize her. Particularly with Jyn, it’ s such a rare opportunity to be able to play a female who’ s not just thinking about [ romantic ] relationships.
GLAMOUR: Do you feel any relief in not being the first Star Wars female lead? Does it feel like Daisy Ridley’ s Rey in The Force Awakens did a lot of work at putting gender wariness to bed?
FJ: Absolutely. And I hope now with Rogue One we’ re in a place where of course women are going to be leading action films as well
Presenting: Jyn Erso Jones’ character— here with costar Diego Luna— leads the mission to steal the Death Star plans in Rogue One.
“ My mother was very much like,‘ You’ re not going to be defined by how you look. It’ s going to be about what you do.’”
as men. I feel like Sigourney Weaver in Alien and Jennifer Lawrence in The Hunger Games, and then obviously Daisy in The Force Awakens, all passed on the baton.
GLAMOUR: Daisy’ s character didn’ t initially get her own action figure, an omission [ The Force Awakens’ director ] J. J. Abrams called preposterous and wrong. How did you feel onstage at the Star Wars Celebration, holding up Jyn Erso’ s action figure?
FJ: It felt really momentous of how far we’ ve come from when I was growing up. Playing with Barbies …
GLAMOUR: My mother wouldn’ t allow me to have Barbies.
FJ: No, nor was I! [ Laughs.] I was a tomboy running around in the garden. I used to play on a local cricket team. I grew up with all boy cousins, for the most part, and my brother. My mother was in the kind of late-sixties, early-seventies origins of female emancipation. And she was very much like,“ You’ re not going to be defined by how you look. It’ s going to be about who you are and what you do.”
GLAMOUR: I heard that people call you Tiny Warrior. How did you earn that nickname?
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