Felicity Rose Hadley Jones (born 17 October 1983) is a British actress. She started her professional acting career as a child, appearing at age 12 in The Treasure Seekers (1996). Jones went on to play Ethel Hallow for one series of the television series The Worst Witch and its sequel Weirdsister College. On radio, she has played the role of Emma Grundy in the BBC’s The Archers. In 2008, she appeared in the Donmar Warehouse production of The Chalk Garden.
Since 2006, Jones has appeared in the films Northanger Abbey (2007), Brideshead Revisited (2008), Chéri (2009), The Tempest (2010), The Amazing Spider-Man 2 (2014), and True Story (2015). Her performance in the 2011 film Like Crazy was met with critical acclaim, garnering her awards, including a special jury prize at the 2011 Sundance Film Festival.
In 2014, her performance as Jane Hawking in The Theory of Everything also met with critical acclaim, garnering her nominations for the Golden Globe, Screen Actors Guild, BAFTA and Academy Award for Best Actress. In 2016, Jones starred in the adventure-thriller Inferno, the fantasy drama A Monster Calls and Rogue One: A Star Wars Story as Jyn Erso. In 2016, she received the BAFTA Britannia Award for British Artist of the Year.
Early life
Felicity Rose Hadley Jones was born in Birmingham on 17 October 1983. She has one elder brother. Her mother worked in advertising and her father was a journalist. She grew up in Bournville, a village in South Birmingham. Her uncle, Michael Hadley, is an actor, which prompted Jones’ interest in acting as a child. One of her great-great-grandmothers hailed from Lucca, Italy.
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. She appeared in student plays, including Attis in which she played the titular role, and, in 2005, Shakespeare’s The Comedy of Errors for the Oxford University Dramatic Society summer tour to Japan, starring alongside Harry Lloyd.
Career
Jones began acting at the age of 11 at after-school workshop Central Junior Television, which was funded by Central Television. At age 14, she appeared in the first series of The Worst Witch. When Weirdsister College began in 2001, Jones returned as Hallow. Her longest running role around this time was on the BBC Radio 4 soap opera The Archers, where she played Emma Carter until 2009 (currently played by Emerald O’Hanrahan).
In 2003, she starred as Grace May in the BBC drama Servants. She took the leading role in the 2007 ITV adaptation of Jane Austen’s Northanger Abbey, and starred 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, 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. 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. Jones played the role of Julie in Ricky Gervais and Stephen Merchant’s 2010 film Cemetery Junction. She also appeared in Soulboy and in Julie Taymor’s big screen adaptation of The Tempest as Miranda.
Jones in 2011
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. For the film, Jones did her own hair and make-up and improvised her dialogue. Her performance earned comparisons to Carey Mulligan’s Academy Award-nominated role in An Education. She also received the Best New Hollywood Award for this film at the 2011 Hollywood Film Awards.
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. 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. 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. Jones lived with a Catholic family and attended Mass to prepare for the role. In 2011, Jones was announced as the new face of Burberry. In November, she was also announced as the new face of Dolce & Gabbana.
In 2013, Jones portrayed Ellen Ternan in The Invisible Woman. Jones, previously unfamiliar with Ternan, learned about her life through research, and reflected that she knew she was “in for a challenge” when choosing to work on the film, citing the experience of director Ralph Fiennes and how “methodically done” his performance was. 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. Jones signed on due to its difference from her previous works.
In 2014, Jones portrayed Jane Wilde Hawking in the film The Theory of Everything, a biopic charting the life and love between Wilde Hawking and the world-renowned physicist Stephen Hawking, with Eddie Redmayne starring as Hawking. After being given the script by her agent, Jones read it in its entirety in one sitting, and said that she enjoyed that it was a “love story and not a straightforward biopic.” She auditioned for the film and its director, James Marsh, offered the part immediately after, surprising Jones who was accustomed to waiting several weeks for a confirmation. Jones was aided by Jane Hawking in preparing for the role, meeting with her. The film has been praised largely due to her and Redmayne’s performances. Jane Hawking was so impressed by the portrayal she wondered if it was herself when watching Jones. For her role as Jane, she received widespread acclaim from a number of organisations, including nominations for 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 as Jyn Erso in the Star Wars stand-alone film Rogue One, with Gareth Edwards directing. Jones’s agent recommended the role to her, and she enjoyed the character’s search for an identity, drawing inspiration in her movements from Ronda Rousey. The film was released in December 2016 to positive reviews and grossed over $1 billion at the box office. Also in 2016, Jones starred in Inferno, playing a doctor aiding Robert Langdon in his escape. After agreeing to the role, she visited museums and galleries to understand her character better. Jones enjoyed the chemistry between her and Tom Hanks’s characters as well as Inferno’s overall diversity.
In late 2018, Jones starred in On the Basis of Sex, a biography of United States Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg, directed by Mimi Leder and co-starring Armie Hammer and Justin Theroux.
Personal life
In 2013, Jones ended her relationship with sculptor Ed Fornieles, her boyfriend of ten years, whom she had met at Oxford when he was at the Ruskin School of Art. In 2015, she began dating director Charles Guard. Their engagement was announced in May 2017, and the couple married in June 2018. In December 2019, a representative for Jones confirmed the couple were expecting their first child. Their child, a son, was born in April 2020.
Filmography
Film
| Year | Title | Role | Notes | Ref. |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2008 | Flashbacks of a Fool | Young Ruth | ||
| Brideshead Revisited | Cordelia Flyte | |||
| 2009 | Chéri | Edmée | ||
| 2010 | Cemetery Junction | Julie Kendrick | ||
| Soulboy | Mandy Hodgson | |||
| The Tempest | Miranda | |||
| 2011 | Chalet Girl | Kim Matthews | ||
| Like Crazy | Anna Gardner | |||
| Albatross | Beth Fischer | |||
| Hysteria | Emily Dalrymple | |||
| 2012 | Cheerful Weather for the Wedding | Dolly Thatchem | ||
| 2013 | Breathe In | Sophie | ||
| The Invisible Woman | Nelly Ternan | |||
| 2014 | The Amazing Spider-Man 2 | Felicia Hardy | ||
| The Theory of Everything | Jane Wilde Hawking | |||
| 2015 | True Story | Jill Barker | ||
| 2016 | Collide | Juliette | ||
| A Monster Calls | Mum | |||
| Inferno | Sienna Brooks | |||
| Rogue One: A Star Wars Story | Jyn Erso | |||
| 2017 | Eric Clapton: Life in 12 Bars | Herself | Documentary | |
| 2018 | Leading Lady Parts | Herself | Short film | |
| On the Basis of Sex | Ruth Bader Ginsburg | |||
| 2019 | The Aeronauts | Amelia Wren | ||
| 2020 | Dragon Rider | Sorrell (voice) | ||
| The Midnight Sky | Sully Rembshire | |||
| 2021 | The Last Letter from Your Lover | Ellie Haworth | Post-production |
Television
| Year | Title | Role | Notes | Ref. |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1996 | The Treasure Seekers | Alice Bastable | Television film | |
| 1998–1999 | 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 | Television film | |
| 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 | Television film | |
| 2014 | Salting the Battlefield | Julianne Worricker | Television film | |
| Girls | Dottie | Episode: “Role-Play” | ||
| 2017 | Saturday Night Live | Host | Episode: “Felicity Jones/Sturgill Simpson” | |
| Star Wars Forces of Destiny | Jyn Erso (voice) | 2 episodes |
Theatre
| Year(s) | Production | Theatre | Role | Ref. |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2005–2006 | The Snow Queen | Newbury Theatre | Gerda | |
| 2007 | That Face | Royal Court Theatre | Mia | |
| 2008 | The Chalk Garden | Donmar Warehouse | Laurel | |
| 2011 | Luise Miller | Donmar Warehouse | Luise Miller |
Awards and nominations
| Year | Award | Category | Work | Result | Ref. |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2015 | AACTA Awards | Best Actress – International | The Theory of Everything | Nominated | |
| 2015 | Academy Awards | Best Actress | The Theory of Everything | Nominated | |
| 2014 | Alliance of Women Film Journalists | Most Egregious Age Difference Between the Leading Man and the Love Interest | The Invisible Woman | Nominated | |
| 2015 | British Academy Film Awards | Best Actress | The Theory of Everything | Nominated | |
| 2011 | British Independent Film Awards | Best Supporting Actress | Albatross | Nominated | |
| 2013 | Best Actress | The Invisible Woman | Nominated | ||
| 2015 | Critics’ Choice Movie Awards | Best Actress | The Theory of Everything | Nominated | |
| 2014 | Dallas–Fort Worth Film Critics Association | Best Actress | The Theory of Everything | 4th place | |
| 2011 | Detroit Film Critics Society | Best Actress | Like Crazy | Nominated | |
| Breakthrough Performance | Nominated | ||||
| 2012 | Empire Awards | Best Female Newcomer | Like Crazy | Won | |
| 2015 | Best Actress | The Theory of Everything | Nominated | ||
| 2017 | Best Actress | Rogue One: A Star Wars Story | Won | ||
| 2015 | Golden Globe Awards | Best Actress – Drama | The Theory of Everything | Nominated | |
| 2011 | Gotham Awards | Breakthrough Actor | Like Crazy | Won | |
| 2011 | Hollywood Film Awards | New Hollywood Award | — | Won | |
| 2015 | Houston Film Critics Society | Best Actress | The Theory of Everything | Nominated | |
| 2017 | Kids’ Choice Awards | Favorite Movie Actress | Rogue One: A Star Wars Story | Nominated | |
| Favorite Butt-Kicker | Nominated | ||||
| #Squad (shared with cast) | Nominated | ||||
| 2015 | London Film Critics’ Circle | British Actress of the Year | The Theory of Everything | Nominated | |
| 2017 | MTV Movie & TV Awards | Best Hero | Rogue One: A Star Wars Story | Nominated | |
| 2011 | National Board of Review | Breakthrough Performance | Like Crazy | Tied | |
| 2014 | San Diego Film Critics Society | Best Actress | The Theory of Everything | Nominated | |
| 2015 | Santa Barbara International Film Festival | Cinema Vanguard Award | The Theory of Everything | Won | |
| 2015 | Satellite Awards | Best Actress | The Theory of Everything | Nominated | |
| 2017 | Saturn Awards | Best Actress in a Film | Rogue One: A Star Wars Story | Nominated | |
| 2015 | Screen Actors Guild Awards | Best Actress | The Theory of Everything | Nominated | |
| Outstanding Performance by a Cast in a Motion Picture | Nominated | ||||
| 2014 | St. Louis Film Critics Association | Best Actress | The Theory of Everything | Nominated | |
| 2011 | Sundance Film Festival | Special Jury Prize | Like Crazy | Won | |
| 2015 | Teen Choice Awards | Choice Movie Actress: Drama | The Theory of Everything True Story |
Nominated | |
| 2017 | Choice Sci-Fi Movie Actress | Rogue One: A Star Wars Story | Nominated | ||
| 2014 | Washington D.C. Area Film Critics Association | Best Actress | The Theory of Everything | Nominated | |
| 2014 | Women Film Critics Circle | The Invisible Woman Award | The Theory of Everything | Won | [113 |