Actors captivate us with their performances on stage and screen, making us laugh, cry, think, and feel. Some, thanks to their sheer talent and skill, achieve immense success and become true movie stars. Felicity Jones is one of the most recognisable actresses today, and her incredible ability to convey the deepest emotions of her characters makes her a standout in the world of art. Read more on birminghamski.
First Steps into Acting
Felicity Rose Hadley Jones was born in Birmingham in 1983. She came from a creative family: her mother worked as an advertising editor, her father was a journalist and TV producer, and her uncle, Michael Hadley, was a professional actor. When Felicity was eight, she went to see a performance of the famous play The Lady from the Sea, in which Michael starred alongside Alex Kingston. It was this very production that inspired Felicity to become an actress.
At the age of 11, she began taking masterclasses at the Central Junior Television Workshop. At 12, Felicity made her television debut in the TV film The Treasure Seekers, where her co-star was a young Keira Knightley.
At 14, she landed a role in the series The Worst Witch, playing Ethel Hallow. She perfectly embodied the character of a young, aristocratic witch who could sing, dance, fly, play the violin, and was an academic, activist, and star of school plays. The sitcom received critical and public acclaim, and the role of Ethel made Felicity a popular figure among teenagers. At 16, Jones joined the radio drama The Archers, where she played Emma Carter. At a young age, Felicity realised that acting was a demanding profession requiring strict discipline and hard work, not just a bit of fun. She had to juggle school with acting and even took a year out to film the series Servants.
After finishing school, Felicity went on to study English at Oxford. There, she was an active participant in student productions, performing in plays by Shakespeare and others. The university’s theatre group was highly professional and even went on tour, including to Japan. Her time at college was also challenging, as filming commitments continued, and Jones had to hire a tutor to pass her exams. Her final dissertation was on the works of the British writer Virginia Woolf.
Theatre Work
Between 2005 and 2011, Jones showcased her talents on stage. In 2005, she was cast as Gerda in the play The Snow Queen at the Newbury theatre. Critics praised the cast’s wonderful and cohesive performance. In 2007, Felicity starred in the psychological drama That Face, which dealt with drugs, alcoholism, and family relationships. Her moving portrayal of Mia, a young girl with access to her mother’s powerful medication who finds herself in a tight spot, was a huge success. Both critics and audiences described the production as ‘intensely moving’, and Jones received her first nomination for an Olivier Award for Best Newcomer. In late 2009, Polly Stenham’s play That Face was ranked ninth in The Times‘s ‘Top Twenty Plays of the Decade’. The play ran in London at the Royal Court Theatre. In 2008, Felicity Jones landed the role of Laurel, an eccentric teenager whose character no governess could handle. The play, The Chalk Garden, explored the complex relationships between mothers and daughters and was a hit at the Donmar Warehouse theatre in London. In 2011, Jones returned to the same theatre to star in Friedrich Schiller’s Luisa Miller, a tale of intrigue, love, and the impossibility of a happy life for a couple from different social classes. Despite the success of all these plays, Felicity later decided to focus her efforts on film projects.
Television and Film
Felicity Jones has appeared in 13 television projects and 26 films, among which her role as Catherine in Northanger Abbey in 2007 is particularly noteworthy. The film became popular in Britain, attracting over 5 million viewers on its first broadcast alone. Critics noted that Jones managed to perfectly combine ‘modesty and humour with self-assurance’. It could be argued that after this film, Felicity truly became a movie star. In 2008, she had minor roles in the cult series Doctor Who and in the film Brideshead Revisited. In 2009, she appeared in the series The Diary of Anne Frank, playing Anne’s older sister, Margot. A special place in Jones’s filmography is held by the 2011 film Like Crazy, which won the Grand Jury Prize at the Sundance Film Festival. Felicity’s performance was highly praised by reviewers.
Starting in 2014, the British actress starred in the American blockbuster The Amazing Spider-Man 2. However, Felicity’s biggest career breakthrough came with the film The Theory of Everything, where she played the first wife of the genius physicist Stephen Hawking.
The story of romantic love and life’s challenges earned Felicity Jones nominations for the prestigious Golden Globe and Academy Awards. It’s worth noting that actors nominated for these awards automatically join the ranks of the elite, with salaries in the millions, as their films bring in colossal revenue for production companies. One such film for Felicity Jones was Rogue One: A Star Wars Story, which grossed over a billion dollars at the box office.
Felicity Jones’s career is in full swing, and the films in which she has embodied brilliant characters continue to delight audiences, with new offers from directors constantly rolling in. In numerous interviews, the movie star often reflects on her first acting steps in Birmingham.