Friday, December 2, 2016

Felicity Jones Breaks Down Gender Stereotypes

Felicity Jones, who stars in the upcoming Star Wars: Rogue One movie, recently sat down for an interview with Glamour Magazine. Here are some of the highlights:

GLAMOUR: In a Rogue One trailer, Jyn is described as reckless, aggressive, and undisciplined. Those are traits we’ve grown accustomed to seeing in male heroes, but they aren’t traits we usually get to see in our female heroes."

Felicity Jones: She’s a bit of a wounded animal when you meet her. There were moments when she’s been blown over, she’s scrambling to get up, and she falls. It’s important that she’s not perfect. [The director] Gareth [Edwards] and I, we want to see her being a human being.

GLAMOUR: You could describe Han Solo using those same words.

FJ: She’s obviously completely her own woman, but I felt like [she] was a rather beautiful blend of Luke Skywalker and Han Solo—and that came up in discussions around designing the costume.

GLAMOUR: She does have that Han Solo–esque belt! Gwendoline Christie, who played the first female Star Wars villain in The Force Awakens, said she loved how her character’s costume was sort of defeminized, utilitarian. Was yours always going to be the same way, or did you have to push back against attempts to sex it up?

FJ: Not for a second. Everyone wanted to create a character that was not in any way objectified. We didn’t want to sexualize Jyn.

GLAMOUR: So there’s no moment where Jyn is suddenly a prisoner in a gold bikini.

FJ: No way. [Laughs.] We don’t even see Jyn’s arms! That’s not her priority. She’s a survivor, and she has a mission to complete.

GLAMOUR: That’s a big deal to me, as somebody who grew up on the early films—that there’s not an eye candy moment for teenage boys to jerk off to.

FJ: Gareth said very early on, “I want guys to watch it and be like, ‘I want to be Jyn!’” A female friend of mine said, “I love that Jyn looks how we look, with trousers and a long-sleeved top.” We aren’t in hot pants. When do women walk around wearing hot pants?

GLAMOUR: Back to how you fight for yourself: Jennifer Lawrence and Patricia Arquette have advocated for equal pay. Do you feel comfortable talking about money? One report says you made twice as much as your male costars for Rogue One.

FJ: I want to be paid fairly for the work that I’m doing. That’s what every single woman around the world wants. We want to be paid on parity with a man in a similar position. And I think it’s important to talk about it.... It’s brave of those women to come forward and make a point about it. Now younger actresses will have a confidence in those discussions with their agents and be able to say, “Can we make sure that I’m being paid the right amount for the work that I’m doing?”

Read the full interview at Glamour.

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