FELICITY JONES, ON A QUEST TO STOP A GLOBAL CATASTROPHE IN “INFERNO”

Press release

Starring opposite Tom Hanks in Columbia Pictures' new suspense thriller “Inferno” is Academy Award® nominated actress Felicity Jones (“The Theory of Everything,” upcoming “Rogue One”) as Dr. Sienna Brooks.

Photos courtesy of Columbia Pictures/UIP

Academy Award® winner Ron Howard returns to direct the latest bestseller in Dan Brown's billion-dollar Robert Langdon series, “Inferno,” which finds the famous symbologist on a trail of clues tied to the great Dante himself. When Langdon wakes up in an Italian hospital with amnesia, he teams up with Sienna Brooks, a doctor he hopes will help him recover his memories. Together, they race across Europe and against the clock to stop a madman from unleashing a global virus that would wipe out half of the world's population.

For Jones, there is more to her character than meets the eye. "Sienna is a young woman who is a strong environmentalist, full of conviction. She is not everything she seems but on the surface she is someone that gets involved in a mystery relating to finding a deadly virus."

That is one of the aspects that drew Jones to the role, she says: “This is really a contemporary story about paranoia, fear of governments, and who we can trust.”

Scene from The Theory of Everything.

“There’s a lot of fun in it, in that they’re going on this quest, they’re finding clues, but at the same time, there is a seriousness and there is a philosophical side to the film,” adds Jones.

“And it’s addressing very pertinent issues about what is the state of the world that we’re living in and how do we contribute to making that world as good as it can be for future generations,” continues Jones. “I feel like, increasingly with global warming, we’re forced to address how we are living, and ask are we living in a way that is sustainable? I am absolutely pro making sure we do everything to leave the planet in as green a state as possible.”

For inspiration in playing her character, Jones says she went straight to the source material. “When I knew I had the part of Sienna, I read Dan Brown’s book – it was a really fun read,” she recalls. “Throughout filming, I would keep coming back to the book for Sienna and find little clues about her backstory that I could use in playing her. The books was a really good resource throughout filming.”

Working with Hanks and Howard, both Oscar winners who make up a formidable creative team, was a delight, Jones shares. “They have a huge affection for each other. They have this shorthand and they are both on the same page creatively. It’s what I would hope to do later in my career – to work with the same people and build up a shorthand. It’s like any creative endeavour, if you work with the same people, you actually save a lot of time because you’re not trying to establish a new relationship.”

Opening across the Philippines on Oct. 12, “Inferno” is distributed by Columbia Pictures in the Philippines, local office of Sony Pictures Releasing International.

FELICITY JONES EARNS OSCAR BEST ACTRESS NOM FOR “THEORY OF EVERYTHING”

Press release

British thespian Felicity Jones is one of five Oscar Best Actress nominees this year, and she accomplishes this feat with a magnificent portrayal of real-life character, Jane Hawking, in Universal Pictures' “The Theory of Everything.”

Also starring fellow Academy Award-nominee Eddie Redmayne, the film is an inspiring biopic of renowned astrophysicist Stephen Hawking, who falls deeply in love with fellow Cambridge student, Jane.

To portray Jane Hawking, the filmmakers needed an actress who would face less physical challenges but any number of psychological ones, incarnating the emotions of a pillar of strength.

Director James Marsh notes that "Jane's beats in the story are all emotional ones. I felt that Felicity Jones would match up well with Eddie Redmayne as actors, which she did, and as a director I found the collaboration with her to be exciting.

"There were many difficult scenes where Eddie would be exposed physically and Felicity would be emotionally exposed. She had to show paradoxical feelings, and that's tough to do. All at once, she needed to convey what it was like to love someone who is suffering from a debilitating illness as well as the burdens it put on her as a lover and on her career."

Jones admired the script's "empathy for human beings. As an actor, I was glad to have the opportunity to play a character across many years."

Screenwriter and producer Anthony McCarten notes, "Felicity built a deep characterization of Jane, treading a precarious path between frailty and strength."

Poring over both script and memoir, the actress made a point of meeting with Jane Hawking early on. "She is someone who never gave up," offersJones. "She dedicated her life to Stephen but at the same time retained her own sense of identity. It was important for her to be recognized in her own right, which is why she continued on with her studies while caring for him and raising a family. What this woman accomplished!"

McCarten notes, "Jane met with Felicity several times, and I know that impacted her portrayal. Felicity would convey how much Jane had going on just under the surface the rich, roiling internalized emotions. For her to do such scenes over and over again got her into the mindset of Jane's powerful ability to hold things together.

Photo courtesy of UIP/Columbia Pictures

"I feel that Felicity captured the Jane I have come to know. There's an authenticity and a discipline to her portrayal that mirror Jane's own strengths."

The love between Jane and Stephen is at the heart of the movie, and the effectiveness of the latter half of the story is enhanced by the glow of the initial romance, particularly the May Ball sequence which is the film's beautiful centerpiece. Marsh explains, "Their marriage later gets complicated, so we have to believe how madly in love Stephen and Jane were from the start. There had to be great vulnerability and tenderness on both sides."

Jones states, "I believe there was an immediate sexual attraction between Stephen and Jane, but at the same time there was a meeting of the minds. I think they challenged each other as well; there was a competitiveness between them, which often happens between two people who are quite intelligent and quite different and all of that helped bond them together."

“The Theory of Everything” is nominated five times in this year's Academy Awards including Best Picture, Best Actor, Best Actress and Best Adapted Screenplay.

Once a healthy, active young man, Hawking (Redmayne) received an earth-shattering diagnosis at 21 years of age. With Jane (Jones) fighting tirelessly by his side, Stephen embarks on his most ambitious scientific work, studying the very thing he now has precious little of – time. Together, they defy impossible odds, breaking new ground in medicine and science, and achieving more than they could ever have dreamed.