Felicity Jones in Dior (Photography: Patrick Demarchelier)
Felicity Jones tacks on leader of a band of rebels in Star Wars Rogue One to her list of Hollywood roles, including Jane Hawking in The Theory of Everything and Sienna Brooks in Inferno. Her next act: cover star of Glamour’s international January issues. Inside, she opens up about her Star Wars character, Jyn Erso, maintaining privacy offscreen, fighting for equal pay in Hollywood, and more. Below, a few highlights; read the full interview when the issue hits newsstands on December 6.
On her Rogue One character, Jyn Erso…
“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.… 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.”
On not sexualizing Jyn…
“Everyone wanted to create a character that was not in any way objectified. We didn’t want to sexualize Jyn.… We don’t even see Jyn’s arms! That’s not her priority. She’s a survivor, and she has a mission to complete.”
Fighting for equal pay in Hollywood…
“I want to be paid fairly for the work that I’m doing. That’s what every single woman around the world wants. We want to be paid on parity with a man in a similar position. And I think it’s important to talk about it.… It’s brave of those women to come forward and make a point about it. Now younger actresses will have a confidence in those discussions with their agents and be able to say, ‘Can we make sure that I’m being paid the right amount for the work that I’m doing?’”
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- Dior top, dress, briefs, flats
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- Proenza Schouler dress, Pierre Hardy heels
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- Christopher Kane top
She was a tomboy…
“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.’”
She is a feminist…
“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.”
Why she protects the privacy of her life offscreen…
“When I go to the cinema, the less I know about the person, the more I can invest in them as characters.”
How she earned the nickname Tiny Warrior…
“I’m small. I’m petite. But I’m a bit of a fighter inside. In my work I fight for, I hope, showing women in a true way. They’ve got brains.”
British vice versus an American vice…
“The British vice is overthinking before we speak, which is really annoying. I love the way that, in America, people are more straightforward. The American vice would be sometimes speaking too loudly. You can always hear American people on the trains!”
