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Felicity Jones

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This article is about the actress. For the naturist, see Felicity Jones (naturist).

Felicity Jones
Jones at TIFF 2011
Born
Felicity Rose Hadley Jones

(1983-10-17) 17 October 1983 (age 41)
Bournville, Birmingham, England
Alma materWadham College, Oxford
OccupationActress
Years active1996–present
PartnerEd Fornieles (2003–13)

Felicity Rose Hadley Jones (born 17 October 1983) is an English actress. She started her professional acting career as a child, appearing at age 12 in The Treasure Seekers (1996). She went on to play Ethel Hallow for one season in the television series The Worst Witch and its sequel Weirdsister College. She took time off from acting to attend school during her formative years, and has worked steadily since she graduated from Wadham College in 2006. On radio, she is known for playing the long-running role of Emma Grundy in The Archers. In 2008, she appeared in the Donmar Warehouse production of The Chalk Garden.

Since 2006 Jones has appeared in numerous films, including Northanger Abbey (2007), Brideshead Revisited (2008), Chéri (2009), and The Tempest (2010).

Her performance in the 2011 film Like Crazy was met with critical acclaim garnering her numerous awards, including a special jury prize at the 2011 Sundance Film Festival. In 2014, her performance as Jane Wilde Hawking in The Theory of Everything was also met with critical acclaim, garnering her nominations for the Golden Globe, SAG, BAFTA, and Academy Award for Best Actress.

Early life

Jones was born and raised in Bournville, an affluent suburb of Birmingham, the daughter of Julia (née Hadley; b. 1951) and Gareth Jones. Her maternal grandparents are Geoffrey and Rose (Day) Hadley, and her uncle is actor Michael Hadley.[1] Her parents met while working at the Wolverhampton Express and Star.[2] Her father was a journalist while her mother was in advertising.[2] They divorced when she was three, and she was brought up with her brother by her mother alone.[1][2][3]

After Kings Norton Girls' School, Jones attended King Edward VI Handsworth School, to complete A-levels and went on to take a gap year (during which she appeared in the BBC series Servants). She then read English at Wadham College, Oxford, graduating with an upper second in 2006. While studying English, she appeared in student plays, including Attis in which she played the title role,[4] and, in 2005, Shakespeare's The Comedy of Errors for the OUDS summer tour to Japan, starring alongside Harry Lloyd.

Career

Jones was encouraged to take up acting by her uncle, the actor Michael Hadley.[5] Her mother was also passionate about film and theatre.[2] She began acting at 11 years at an after-school workshop funded by Central Television.[2] Jones appeared in the first series of The Worst Witch, after which she was replaced by Katie Allen.[6] She left the series because she missed home.[1] When Weirdsister College began in 2001, Jones returned as Hallow. During the shooting of Weirdsister College she was just seventeen, lived in a flat in Richmond and had a private tutor to get her through her A levels.[5] Her longest and probably best known role overall was on the BBC Radio 4 soap opera The Archers, where she played Emma Carter (who is now played by Emerald O'Hanrahan).[1]

Jones at the 2014 Toronto International Film Festival

In 2003, she starred as Grace May in the BBC drama Servants.[7] She took the leading role in the 2007 ITV adaptation of Jane Austen's Northanger Abbey, and made her stage debut in Polly Stenham's That Face at the Royal Court Theatre in April 2007.

In 2008, she appeared in the films Brideshead Revisited and Flashbacks of a Fool,[8] the Doctor Who episode "The Unicorn and the Wasp" and a revival of Enid Bagnold's The Chalk Garden at the Donmar Warehouse theatre in London.[9] In January 2009, the five-part TV serial The Diary of Anne Frank, in which Jones played the role of Margot Frank alongside Tamsin Greig (as Edith Frank-Holländer) and Iain Glen (as Otto Frank), was broadcast on BBC One. Later that year in May, she performed in a rehearsed reading of Anthony Minghella's Hang Up at the High Tide Festival.[10] Jones played the role of Julie in Ricky Gervais and Stephen Merchant's 2010 film Cemetery Junction.[11] She also appeared in Soulboy[12] and in Julie Taymor's big screen adaptation of The Tempest as Miranda.

On 29 January 2011, Jones won a Special Jury Prize (Dramatic) at the Sundance Film Festival for her performance as Anna in Drake Doremus's Like Crazy.[1] She had to do her own hair and make-up in the film, while the dialogue was entirely improvised.[1] Her performance earned comparisons to Carey Mulligan's Academy Award-nominated role in An Education.[1] She also received the Best New Hollywood Award for this film at the 2011 Hollywood Film Awards.[13] She appeared alongside Gossip Girl actor Ed Westwick in Chalet Girl, a romantic comedy released in March 2011, for which she had to undergo two months of snowboarding training and work undercover in a chalet at St Anton, scrubbing toilets and partying at the Krazy Kanguruh bar in preparation for the role.[1] Jones said that the role was "something of a relief" after a string of costume roles and she was also keen to take on a comic role.[2] Jones performed in Luise Miller, a new translation of Schiller's Kabale und Liebe by Mike Poulton at the Donmar Warehouse theatre in London, in June and July 2011.[14] Jones lived with a Catholic family and attended Mass to prepare for the role.[1] In 2011, Jones was announced as the new face of Burberry.[1] In November, she was also announced as the new face of Dolce & Gabbana.[15] She also co-starred in The Amazing Spider-Man 2, which was released on 2 May 2014. She played Felicia Hardy; an assistant of Harry Osborn.[16][17][18]

Her current highlight is her 2014 performance as Jane Hawking in the film The Theory of Everything, a biopic charting the life and love between Jane Wilde Hawking and the world-renowned physicist Stephen Hawking, with Eddie Redmayne starring as Hawking. The film has received critical acclaim mostly due to her and Redmayne's performances. For her role as Jane, she received widespread acclaim and nominations from numbers of organizations, including an Academy Award for Best Actress, a BAFTA Award for Best Actress in a Leading Role, a Golden Globe Award for Best Actress, a Critics' Choice Movie Award for Best Actress and a Screen Actors Guild Award for Outstanding Performance by a Female Actor in a Leading Role.

In February 2015, she was cast in the Star Wars spin-off film, Rogue One: A Star Wars Story with Gareth Edwards directing.[19]

Personal life

In 2013, she split from her boyfriend of ten years, Ed Fornieles, who is a sculptor and internet artist.[1][20] She and Fornieles met at Oxford when he was at the Ruskin School of Art.[1][21]

Filmography

Television

Year Title Role Notes
1996 The Treasure Seekers Alice Bastable Movie
1998–99 The Worst Witch Ethel Hallow 11 episodes
2001 Weirdsister College Ethel Hallow 13 episodes
2003 Servants Grace May 6 episodes
2007 Northanger Abbey Catherine Morland Movie
2007 Cape Wrath Zoe Brogan 8 episodes
2008 Doctor Who Robina Redmond Episode: "The Unicorn and the Wasp"
2009 The Diary of Anne Frank Margot Frank 5 episodes
2011 Page Eight Julianne Worricker Movie
2014 Salting the Battlefield Julianne Worricker Movie
2014 Girls Dot Episode: "Role-Play"

Film

Year Title Role Notes
2008 Flashbacks of a Fool Young Ruth
2008 Brideshead Revisited Lady Cordelia Flyte
2009 Chéri Edmée
2010 Cemetery Junction Julie Kendrick
2010 Soulboy Mandy Hodgson
2011 The Tempest Miranda
2011 Chalet Girl Kim Matthews
2011 Like Crazy Anna Maria Gardner
2011 Albatross Beth Fischer
2011 Hysteria Emily Dalrymple
2012 Cheerful Weather for the Wedding Dolly Thatchem
2013 Breathe In Sophie
2013 The Invisible Woman Nelly Ternan
2014 The Amazing Spider-Man 2 Felicia Hardy
2014 The Theory of Everything Jane Wilde Hawking
2015 True Story Jill
2015 Collide Juliette
2016 A Monster Calls Mum In post-production
2016 Inferno Sienna Brooks Filming
2016 Rogue One: A Star Wars Story Filming

Theatre

Awards and nominations

Main article: List of awards and nominations received by Felicity Jones

References

  1. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l Grant, Olly (31 July 2011). "Felicity Jones: rising star". The Daily Telegraph. London. Retrieved 3 August 2011.
  2. ^ a b c d e f Cadwalladr, Carole (20 February 2011). "Felicity Jones: 'There's a sensation when you're performing of release'". The Observer. London. Retrieved 3 August 2011.
  3. ^ http://ethnicelebs.com/felicity-jones accessed 2/15/2015
  4. ^ Moss, Deborah (9 June 2005). "Mythologies". The Oxford Student. Archived from the original on 1 May 2007. Retrieved 15 April 2010.
  5. ^ a b White, Lesley (28 September 2008). "Felicity Jones: Ambridge goes to Brideshead". The Sunday Times. London. Retrieved 15 April 2010.
  6. ^ Katie Allen
  7. ^ "Drama - Servants". BBC. Retrieved 7 September 2012.
  8. ^ Fanning, Ewan. (13 April 2008). "I reckon I never had that much sex as a kid". Interview with Daniel Craig. Irish Independent. Retrieved on 13 April 2008.
  9. ^ "Roger takes on Piaf at Donmar". 18 April 2008. Official London Theatre Guide. Retrieved on 18 April 2008.
  10. ^ http://www.hightide.org.uk/pages/anthonyminghella.php[dead link‍]
  11. ^ "Ricky Gervais talks Cemetery Junction". Indie London. Retrieved 1 May 2009. {{cite web}}: Italic or bold markup not allowed in: |publisher= (help)
  12. ^ "Soulboy". Ipso Facto Films. Retrieved 15 April 2010.
  13. ^ "2011 Hollywood Film Awards Honorees". Yahoo! Movies. 7 October 2011. Retrieved 25 October 2011.
  14. ^ "''Luise Miller'' – Donmar Warehouse website". Donmarwarehouse.com. 30 July 2011. Retrieved 7 September 2012.
  15. ^ Whitelocks, Sadie (29 November 2011). "Who's that girl? Brit actress Felicity Jones is new face of D&G". Daily Mail. London. Retrieved 11 December 2012.
  16. ^ "Amazing Spider-Man 2 Must Read: Marc Webb On Goblins, Internet Rumors And 'Thinking Bigger'". Cinema Blend. 20 July 2013.
  17. ^ "Felicity Jones Drops a Big Spoiler for The Amazing Spider-Man Franchise". SuperHero Hype. 17 July 2013.
  18. ^ [1]
  19. ^ Kroll, Justin (3 February 2015). "Felicity Jones to Play Lead Role in 'Star Wars' Spinoff Movie". Variety.
  20. ^ Eyre, Hermione (26 March 2010). "The dream team: Ricky Gervais's bright young things". ES Magazine. Retrieved 15 April 2010.
  21. ^ Eden, Richard (12 January 2014). "Spider-Man 2 star Felicity Jones splits up with artist". Telegraph. Retrieved 12 January 2014.
  22. ^ "Creation Theatre Company - The Snow Queen". Newburytheatre.co.uk. Retrieved 7 September 2012.
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