Felicity Jones on Working with Ralph Fiennes in Charles Dickens Biopic

I'm here with the lovely Felicity Jones. Hello. This is her, Felicity. Oh, we're going to do the posture thing. We're doing, we're doing very good posture. Welcome to Young Hollywood. I'm joined here by the lovely Felicity Jones. How are you, Felicity?

I'm very well, thank you. Thank you for coming. How are you?

I'm wonderful.

Good. God, this will take a lot of effort, didn't it?

It does, yeah. Let's just relax. Let's, let's just chill. It doesn't suit me. We are on a sofa so we will do that. There's lots of cushions. Oh, there's lots of lots of cushions. that's lots of faces. Who's your favorite face on that pillow?

Oh, yes, let's see. Um I think it would have to be Beyoncé.

I saw Beyoncé last night, her concert. She was phenomenal. How was it?

Absolutely brilliant.

Anyway, we're not here to talk about Beyoncé. We're talking about you being The Invisible Woman.

Yes. Yes.

It is a very good film in its own right. I've seen it and I loved it. Great. Mixed emotions. It was like oh, and then oh.

Yeah, it's um it's an intense love story.

It is. It is an intense love story about the amazing Charles Dickens.

Indeed.

Which is very good. Yes. And you are Nelly, with a troubled past.

Um yeah, I play Nelly Ternan and it's about her looking back on her life and and had this very tempestuous affair with Charles Dickens.

Tempestuous. Do you like that word? I love it. I just try to throw that in. You've just clearly confused me with a word. tempestuous, I love that. I love that. Um and uh you do a lot of walking in the movie.

I do.

That was good.

Yes. She's got a lot on her mind so, you know, she's she's trying to um exercise the the ghost of Charles Dickens.

Right. Beautifully shot.

It is, it's wonderful. It's absolutely gorgeous, absolutely gorgeous. He's amazing. Rob Hardy was the um the DOP and and yeah he's brilliant.

Right. And you worked with the amazing Ralph Fiennes.

Yes.

He wasn't just acting in the movie, he was directing as well.

He was, yeah. I mean at times it did feel like I was being directed by Charles Dickens.

Did it?

Yeah. Cuz he'd be in costume and he'd suddenly be doing a scene and then he'd be sort of trotting off behind the camera. So it was a little disorientating at times.

And how was he as a director?

He's great. I mean he's very he's very intense as a as a person and he he is very honest as a director. So it was, you know, he'd come up after I'd do a take and then he'd come up afterwards and say that was terrible. You have to do that again. So we immediately had a a very kind of straightforward interaction with each other.

Right.

But it's quite it can be a bit intimidating at first working with a a director who is such a phenomenal actor at the same time. It took me a few days to kind of relax and and not feel like oh gosh I've got to, you know, really impress and keep

Yeah, I guess in some ways I think that would help because he's an actor so he gets it more but then someone like him you're like wow.

Well, yeah. You you you've because I've grown up watching his films and and really admiring his his work. So, um but but actually Ralph is he's not someone he's very sort of open and and straightforward. So after after I'd got over my initial nerves it was it was a good working relationship.

Right. And going into a role like that, was there much cuz you like to prepare for your roles when I when I was reading up on that, you're quite you really do prepare.

I like to do preparation just cuz you want to feel like when you're actually on set that you know what you're doing.

Right.

Which helps. My insecurity.

Okay. Well that's a good thing.

Yeah. Good thing.

And how was it going into a role like this?

It's so instinctive about understanding who Nelly was and it's it's based on a book by Claire Tomalin called The Invisible Woman and that was really where my my research started and and reading that book and trying to understand who she was.

And were you a big Charles Dickens fan?

I you know what I I I studied literature at university but I was much more into kind of James Joyce and Virginia Woolf and we thought, you know, Dickens wasn't really that cool. But actually since doing the film and reading um reading his work and actually Great Expectations has come out to be one of my favorite books. Oh, he's going to He's actually He's actually pretty good. He's not, you know, people have never really mentioned him. He didn't get the recognition that he deserved, Charles. I know. People had been so down on him. Hopefully this film is going to show everyone just how great Charles Dickens was. And it's too late, he's not around to.

I know. To receive the awards and and stuff like that. Um and now you've worked in so many, you know, productions and stuff like small British films and now massive blockbusters. What's what's the big difference?

You know, usually when you're doing these low budget films it's literally like you've got four scenes and you have to do them in a day and then you're going to lose the location. But with something like Spider-Man, you know, you have days to to do one scene and it's a it's a lot more it's a lot slower process.

And the sets are amazing. And your trailer's are bigger.

The trailer Well, actually, yeah, the trailers do get slightly bigger, yeah.

Okay. And no more baked beans on toast?

No, it's caviar.

Caviar. Caviar. Every day. So yes, The Amazing Amazing Spider-Man. Can you tell us much about that? Probably not.

Ah well, I uh I can't really.

Can't it? It's all top secret, so

We won't tell anyone, I promise. You can trust me. You guys. You can trust me.

Um you'll have to wait and see. But it's amazing. And it's Spider-Man. It's going to be amazing. It's going to be amazing. Cuz it's The Amazing Spider-Man. I love that. I love that. From The Invisible Woman to Spider-Man, this girl Felicity Jones is everywhere right now. And you're looking fabulous.

Thank you very much.

Let's finish the interview in a good way. Thank you for watching. This is Felicity. I'm Oliver and this is Young Hollywood. Thank you very much.

Thank you. Thank you. Thank you.