Monday 31 January 2011

The hottest star in Hollywood – who owes it all to Ambridge

Here's a Felicity Jones at Sundance article in today's Independent newspaper. I note that Felicity has been awarded a special jury prize for her part in the movie Like Crazy.

It is a long way from Borchester to Hollywood. But Felicity Jones, who worked her way into the nation's affections playing village tease Emma Grundy in The Archers, is now being touted as the movie industry's hottest young talent.

This weekend the 27-year-old Oxford-educated star of the long-running BBC Radio 4 drama was hailed as the leading light of the Sundance Film Festival when she was awarded a special jury prize for her performance in Like Crazy – an independent film about the joys and strains of a transatlantic love affair.

Having already been snapped up after its world premiere by Paramount Pictures last week, Drake Doremus's quirky long-distance love film was also selected for a prestigious grand jury prize. Presenting the award, Ugly Betty star America Ferrera said: "The 2011 Sundance Film Festival will go down as the year of the actress."

According to the LA Times, Ms Jones and her co-star Anton Yelchin "couldn't be more appealing as they sort through their issues, green card and otherwise". It is heady praise indeed for Ms Jones. As well as being the most talked about performer at Robert Redford's independent film festival in Utah, which is celebrating its 30th anniversary, comparisons are also being drawn between her and fellow Briton Carey Mulligan, who similarly took Sundance by storm in 2009 for her role in An Education.

Ms Jones began her acting career at the age of 11 at the Central Junior Television Workshop in her native Birmingham and has been talked about as the heir apparent to Keira Knightley for some time. But while British audiences may know her best as serial heartbreaker Emma Grundy, success looks certain to lead to a deluge of offers for starring roles in 2011.

Yet it is unlikely she will have to go to the same lengths for her next part as she did for the last one. Aware that other actresses were chasing the Like Crazy part, she decided to show Mr Doremus exactly what she could do. "There's a scene in the shower with no words, but it conveys so much and I felt it would get the director's attention, so I clambered into my shower and shot the moment. I had a handy assistant to hold the camera and that was it," she said. Having posted the home-shot video to Los Angeles, the rest was sorted out in a series of telephone calls with Mr Doremus.

In Like Crazy she plays Anna, a young British student who falls for an American while studying in Los Angeles. Their love is put to the test courtesy of the US's notoriously bureaucratic immigration system.

Although Hollywood beckons for Ms Jones, she has insisted that The Archers retains a unique place in her affections and even covets a return. She first played the role of Emma Grundy (née Carter) when she was just 15, but gave it up last year, to be replaced by Emerald O'Hanrahan.

Her career as a child star was interrupted by her studies at Oxford, where she read English at Wadham College, though she continued to act. Since then, she has appeared in ITV1's Northanger Abbey and a number of stage plays at the Royal Court Theatre and the Donmar Warehouse, where she starred in a revival of The Chalk Garden. Last year she was cast in Ricky Gervais and Stephen Merchant's Cemetery Junction. Later this year her fans will be able to catch her in romantic comedy Chalet Girl, alongside Bill Nighy.

Ms Jones was unable to collect her award in person as she had to return to the UK to finish filming for David Hare's BBC film Page 8.


Source: http://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/films/news/the-hottest-star-in-hollywood-ndash-who-owes-it-all-to-ambridge-2199000.html


Wednesday 26 January 2011

Felicity Jones: New Sundance "It" Girl?

Another article from my inbox this week. Looks like Fliss is making an impact at Sundance. here's an excerpt:

Drake Doremus earned praise at least year’s festival for his debut effort, the dark road comedy “Douchebag,” but the writer-director has returned with a very different film. “Like Crazy” stars Anton Yelchin and Felicity Jones as a young couple kept apart by an ocean and some visa troubles. For Jones, this year's festival may be her grand coming out party.

As soon as the screening ended, it seems, Jones found herself in a pitched battle for this year’s “it” girl title with “Martha Marcy May Marlene” star Elizabeth Olsen, if the New York and Los Angeles Times are to be believed.

You can read the whole article here:
http://www.nbcwashington.com/blogs/popcornbiz/Like-Crazy-Finds-Felicity-Jones-in-Running-for-Sudnace-It-Girl-Crown--and-Anton-Yelchin-Is-Pretty-Good-Too-114438409.html

Felicity Jones and the shower scene screen test

This story landed in my inbox this week...

British actress Felicity Jones is the talk of the Sundance Festival following a screening of her latest film Like Crazy, which played to a packed theatre in snowy Park City, Utah.

Jones plays a Londoner who falls in love with an American (Star Trek's Anton Yelchin) in Los Angeles. But the couple are soon torn apart by her visa problems.

Jones's acting - much of which is improvised - impressed the assembled movie buffs and prompted comparisons with Carey Mulligan, who similarly won over Sundance with her 2009 part in An Education.

But it was director Drake Doremus who really raised eyebrows when, during a post-screening Q&A session, he revealed how he had discovered the 27-year-old.

Apparently, Jones (above), who has so far enjoyed only bit parts in British productions such as Brideshead Revisited and Doctor Who, got a copy of the script and filmed herself in one of the scenes – in the shower.

Jones, who was living in London, then sent the video to Doremus in Los Angeles, who immediately decided to employ her.

"She put together a tape in her apartment and she did the shower scene. She actually got into the shower and shot herself doing the scene and it was magnificent.

"I saw that scene and cast her right away - well, that's not why... it was fantastic."

Jones will appear next in the all-star BBC spy series Page 8 along with Rachel Weisz and is rumoured to be up for a part in Snow White and the Huntsman.

Read more: http://www.thefirstpost.co.uk/74146,people,entertainment,felicity-jones-and-the-breakthrough-shower-scene-like-crazy#ixzz1CAi3XWUp

Tuesday 11 January 2011

SoulBoy out on UK DVD

This DVD release of Felicity's movie SoulBoy somehow passed me by until I saw the DVD on the shelves of my local ASDA store tonight. I was almost going to buy a copy until I noticed that it was only 80 minutes long. I think I'll wait until the sale price.

Sunday 9 January 2011

Saturday 8 January 2011

Felicity in BBC's Page Eight

Heres news of another new felicuty project.

BBC Two has announced an all-star cast for its new thriller Page Eight.

The show, which is David Hare's first original screenplay for 20 years, will feature actors including Bill Nighy, Rachel Weisz, Judy Davis, Michael Gambon and Ralph Fiennes.

The drama follows Nighy's character Johnny, a long-serving MI5 officer who is shocked when his boss and best friend Benedict (Gambon) dies suddenly, leaving him a mysterious file.

Meanwhile, Johnny has a seemingly chance encounter with his next-door neighbour Nancy (Weisz), a political activist. Eventually he ends up walking out of his job and "out of his identity" to find out the truth.

The cast also includes Ewen Bremner, Felicity Jones, Tom Hughes, Alice Krige and Saskia Reeves.

Hare said: "The last decade has been as testing as any in the history of the British intelligence community - the compromises and dilemmas they've faced in the new century make a fascinating story. I'm thrilled to be working with such an extraordinary ensemble of great actors."

Filming for Page Eight will begin this month and the film will air later this year.

http://www.digitalspy.co.uk/tv/news/a296643/weisz-gambon-join-bbc-two-thriller.html