Felicity Jones isn’t your typical movie star. In a world that loves attention, and around people that thrive in the spotlight, Jones prefers to keep to herself. In spite of this, she’s managed to become successful, and earn a fortune through her acting career.
Here’s the story of how an introvert has managed to comes to terms with performance, and earn respect in Hollywood- along with a large net worth.
Felicity Jones earned her fortune through acting
After all of the movies that Jones has starred in, she has a net worth of $6 million. A significant portion of that comes from her 2016 role in Rogue One: A Star Wars Story, as the character Jyn.
According to the Hollywood Reporter, Jones was the highest-paid cast member, negotiating a seven-figure salary for the movie. Her co-stars were reportedly all paid in the six-figure range. Despite her self-consciousness, Jones was able to convince them of her value. “She knows her worth,” a source said.
Casting the lead in Rogue One as a female impressed Jones, so much that she wanted to be a part of the film. John Kroll, the films creator, was responsible for the choice.
“Having three daughters, it was very plain to me that they could use more strong female characters in Star Wars that they could relate to,” he told the Los Angeles Times.
To ready herself for the role of Jyn, Jones watched female professional wrestler, Rhonda Rousey. “A lot of the way I built [Jyn] was through her walk, I used to watch Ronda Rousey,” Jones said. “In terms of getting that kind of energy and that sort of physicality.”
The film was a success, bringing in over $1 billion at the box office, and making Jones part of the Hollywood elite. She has also been a part of several other hits including, Inferno, The Amazing Spider Man 2, and The Theory of Everything, among others.
Jones is an introvert
Even though Jones has built a career out of performing, she’s not the most confident person in the room. Growing up with a single mom, Jones believes that the lack of a nuclear family made her more self-conscious. She discussed her background, and the effect it had on her during an interview with Carole Cadwalladr of The Guardian.
“I wasn’t the kind of person who pushed myself forward,” Jones said. “I’m still not the most confident person in that way.”
Surprisingly, Jones doesn’t see acting as a way to get attention. Instead, she sees it as a way to lose herself in the characters she’s imitating. For her, there’s a shyness to acting, as a way to blend in and not have to be your true self.
Where most actors come from an extrovert background, Jones is the opposite. “There’s a sensation you get when you’re performing of release from a self-consciousness that you might have in everyday life,” she said.
For Jones, acting means that in her personal life, she’s more closed off. When she performs, she gives everything to becoming that character, but as she explained to The Guardian, you have to keep something of yourself.
That’s why she becomes more closed off in her personal life. She feels that she has given everything she’s comfortable sharing with the world during her performance.
How Jones got her start in acting
As a child, Jones would perform with her friends in the garden. Dressing up, and becoming another character to escape her life. At the age of 11, she began acting in an afterschool workshop funded by Central Television. The fascination with a story-world and storytelling is something she inherited from her family.
Her mother would drive her to the cinema out of town, so on the long car ride home, they would discuss the movie, and breakdown the plot and story-line. It was one of her favorite memories growing up.
In 1998, Jones made her television debut in The Worst Witch, after someone noticed her during the after-school workshop. After that, she began getting other offers, and her career was well on her way to becoming the success it is today.
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