TORONTO – Felicity Jones has walked red carpets round the globe. She’s survived the rigors of an intense Oscar season for “The Theory of Everything” and blissfully sat through five different awards shows where she lost every single time, including the Academy Awards. Nothing, however, has matched the response she’s experienced as part of the “Star Wars” franchise since she was cast as the lead in Gareth Edwards’ “Rogue One: A Star Wars Story.”
“I was overwhelmed by the warmth of the response from the fans,” Jones says. “When we went to [Star Wars Celebration] we showed some pieces of the film and the love for the franchise is so special that everyone is completely infected by it. It’s almost quite a transcendent experience. Everyone is joined together for this shared affection for this film and this characters that that whether you are seven or seventy you have an affection for it.”
Jones is sitting in a hotel suite conducting interviews at the 2016 Toronto Film Festival just a few days after the world premiere of her latest endeavor, J.A. Bayona’s “A Monster Calls” (read our rave review here) Based on Patrick Ness‘s novel, the movie centers on young Conor O’Malley (Lewis MacDougall), a boy trying to deal with an illness that is crippling his mother (Jones) and a grandmother (Sigourney Weaver) he can’t relate to. The Brit admits she thought it was “ace” when she heard the legendary Weaver – who made history with her role as Ripley in “Alien” – was playing her mother in the picture.
“I thought she’s bloody brilliant,” Jones says laughing. “I mean to meet someone who has so informed their career you have as a young actress is pretty special. She really set the tone for the kind of roles I wanted to play.”
Jones continues noting, “She is the woman who made playing Jyn in ‘Rogue One’ possible. I’d been doing an American accent in a movie called ‘True Story’ and I’d been watching Sigourney videos to imitate her accent. So, I felt I had this very intimate window into her life before meeting her. And then I told her ‘I’ve been watching all these YouTube videos of you doing interviews in order to imitate your accent for this film and she went, ‘Oh, cool.’ Like [I was] a crazy fan.”
The 32-year-old actress might seem a tad young to play Connor’s mother, Lizzie, but Bayona – who has shown remarkable talent with films such as “The Impossible” and setting up the world for Showtime’s now defunct “Penny Dreadful” – had taken a shine to her after watching her underrated work in 2011’s “Like Crazy.” She recalls that she really liked the script, but meeting Bayona in person is when everything really fell into place.
“I even think in the meeting we shed a tear,” Jones says. “It was so emotional just talking about it and the authenticity that he brings to everything he does. I actually said at the end of the meeting I wanted to do it. “
One thing audiences will immediately pick up while watching the movie is that the word ‘cancer’ is never used to describe mother’s illness. In fact, what she is suffering from is never disclosed at all. Ness’ book also kept it under wraps because “you’re seeing it from Connor’s eyes.”
“He’s seeing the effects the illness is having on her, but he only relates to Lizzie as his mother,” Jones says. “It’s interesting how in the book you get these little clues as to what is going on. It’s often quite mysterious and through Connor you gradually realize what is happening to his mother. It’s important to retain some of that ambiguity and distortion because you’re really in his head in understanding what he is going through and I think at the same time the audience is processing it, so is he.”
That being said, bringing Lizzie to life meant making some real decisions regarding what she is actually suffering from. Jones notes, “Playing the role I had to know what the exact nature of her illness was and to find the precision in playing someone who has terminal cancer. In terms of the preparation it was important that we were very specific and we went and spoke to doctors about women suffering from ovarian cancer which is the cancer we chose that she suffers from.”
This wasn’t the first time Jones had worked with a child actor before, but it was never for an on screen relationship this intimate.
“Part of the process was actually, ‘We really need to show as mother and son that we’ve had a really long relationship.’ So, it was trying to fast forward that in a few weeks of prep before we started,” Jones says. “We went to a theme park and went on various roller coasters and screamed together. And that was a great way of breaking the ice between us.”
“A Monster Calls” is clearly Connor’s journey and MacDougall’s spotlight, but Jones was happy to play an integral part of it. Especially now that audiences are having such an emotional reaction to the final film.
“There was something so unique about this story that I felt I wanted to be a part of it in some way,” Jones says. “And working with people like Bayona it’s always such a great experience to work with people who love what they do.”
“A Monster Calls” opens nationwide in limited release on Dec. 23 and nationwide on Jan. 6.