Yesterday I shared with you my experience at Skywalker Ranch seeing 28 minutes of Rogue One footage and my day at Lucasfilm HQ. We had the chance to interview most of the cast of Rogue One: A Star Wars Story including Felicity Jones, who plays Jyn Erso. Read on for 5 things we learned from our interview with Felicity Jones!
Jyn is a Strong Female Character
Felicity Jones shared with us that “Jyn has a very strong ideology. She hates the empire, she hates everything they stand for – they have destroyed her family, so anytime she sees a storm trooper she’s like an animal who wants to take them down. At the same time she has a wonderful humanity and she learns how to be a leader throughout the film. She starts off and she’s a bit of an outsider and is very suspicious and untrusting of people.
She’s had a bit of a hard life, there’s been quite a lot of struggle, so it’s not easy for her to trust people. Throughout the film you see her actually forming these bonds with kindred spirits, with the other rebels. Finding something that they all have a common dislike of the empire and they unite over that despite their differences.”
Image courtesy of MomStart.com
Creating Jyn was a Collaborative Effort
“Throughout everything it was very, very collaborative starting from the costume. Originally the costume – the first suggestions were sort of this combat style, combat trousers and a kind of flack vest. And I tried that and it didn’t feel quite right and it didn’t feel Star Wars enough and so we had a quite a lot of discussions about bringing in more of this Japanese style that you see in those early films with Obi Wan Kenobi. You know, the martial arts type of clothing that they wear to bring out that side of Jyn, to bring something a little bit more spiritual into her characterization through the costume. But, every step of the way it was a very, very open dialogue in terms of for all of us to bring as much as we wanted to the characters.”
There Was a LOT of Training Involved
Just from the trailers, you can see that Jyn is a kick-ass character. When asked what kind of training was involved, Felicity shared with us that she had “never done any of this stuff before so it was just learning everything from the very beginning and just working very closely with the stunt team who took me through these sort of acrobatic moves that Jyn would have to perform eventually. It was just a lot of practice and a lot of practice.”
When talking about doing her own stunts, Felicity shared that, “I like to do as much as possible you know. It’s nice I think when you can see the actor actually doing as much of the stunt and the stunt team like that as well. So that it feels believable.”
Star Wars is About Family
When asked what Star Wars means to her, Felicity told us, “I feel the reason it’s lasted for so long is it’s about family, it’s not just blood relations, it’s the family that you form with friends. I think what’s so special about it is those friendships are across different races, different languages and it’s people who come together and they’re obviously united by fighting the forces of evil.
I think that’s what people, generations and generations tap into those relationships and really empathize with those characters.”
Image courtesy of MomStart.com
Little Girls Can Look Up to Jyn
When asked what she wanted younger generations to get from the character of Jyn, Felicity shared, “What I like about her is she’s not a princess, she’s not really rich, she’s not privileged you know. That’s what we’re used to seeing in these sort of leading Disney roles. She’s very much an ordinary woman and ordinary girl who’s had to make the best of things and I think what I would like young girls to take from it is resourcefulness and self reliance. Jyn isn’t always sweetness and light and giggles, she is exactly who she wants to be.
I think what’s important is that young girls don’t feel like they have to conform to some idea of what a girl should be. It’s like, you can be whoever you want, whatever you are and take confidence in that and there isn’t a standard that we should all be working towards. It’s like, this is what perfection is you know, ’cause that makes everyone feel bad. It’s about celebrating what’s different about us and being allowed, society letting that come through.”
Um, YEAH. I am absolutely excited about this amazing character that not only my daughters will look up to one day but that my son will see NOW. He will see Jyn being resourceful and not needing to be saved and being a confident woman. It’s important for both girls and boys to see that!
Bonus: Felicity Jones had no comment on if there would be a love interest. 😉 Also, when asked who her favorite Star Wars character growing up was, she said, “I’ve always like Hans Solo. Just because Harrison Ford is really hot.” Oh, Felicity, I agree.
Image Courtesy of MomStart.com
Rogue One: A Star Wars Story is in theaters on December 16th! Watch the trailer below and don’t forget to grab your tickets for it now!
Disclosure: Thanks so much to Disney for bringing me out to San Francisco for the event. All thoughts and opinions are my own.
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