Executive producing Last Letter was a particular joy for her. Often, she says, an actor only becomes involved in a project “right at the very end of a long development process, which has always been a bit of a shame.”
“With Last Letter, I was able to be involved at a point where we could discuss changing some of the story elements. I think it’s just a very empowering process,” she says. “In a broader sense, I do feel that stories, as soon as you put them into the world, dictate ideology, and to be able to have a say in those stories is a dream.”
You might think it would be challenging to star in a film and produce it at the same time — but Jones says it was actually the contrary.
“It doesn’t feel like the roles contradict each other. They feel incredibly harmonious,” she says. “Obviously, the more that you get inside the story, I find the more that helps with the acting, with understanding the character and their motivations.”
Felicity Jones and Nabhaan Rizwan in The Last Letter from Your Lover. Photos by Parisa Taghizadeh/Netflix
Frizzell can attest to how well Jones took to producing.
“Felicity as an executive producer is pretty much on par with her as an actress. She’s whip smart, insightful, has incredible instincts and is fun to be around,” she tells MovieMaker. “She’s unexpectedly funny, and was actually quite fearless.”
As for upcoming projects, Piecrust is in the process of optioning two books. The first is a biography of a famous woman of the 18th century named Lady Emma Hamilton.
Although she’s best remembered for her affair with the naval hero Vice-Admiral Horatio Nelson, Jones says, “the story we wish to tell will be a reinterpretation of how from her perspective, rather than the perspective of history, which tends to be quite patriarchal.”
It pairs well with the second book the company is optioning — one set in a world in which most of the men have died and society is run entirely by women.
“We’re definitely drawn to material that is on the edges, that is unexpected. Particularly in the roles that I’ve played, I’ve always been drawn to defiant women, and so defiance of expectation will be something that we’ll be exploring in our film and TV projects.”
After so much experience in the industry, Jones says becoming a producer has made her much tougher on scripts.
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“You see what it takes to bring something to fruition,” she says. “I’m looking for a singularity and a strength of vision that has come from obviously just being much more involved in a broader sense of filmmaking.”
In the future, she plans on asking filmmakers some tough questions.
“Why do you want to tell this story, and how are you going to tell it?” she says.
Felicity Jones in The Last Letter from You Letter
After Last Letter, her next project is Borderland, which she’ll star in as well as produce via Piecrust. It’s a thriller that follows Jack Reynor (Midsommar) as Michael, a member of the Irish Republican Guard who is on the hunt for a man named Tempest (John Boyega) who killed his pregnant wife.
As we spoke, Jones was at her London home and had just received the first dose of the COVID-19 vaccine. Her plans for when things open back up included dancing.
“I love a bit of raving. That’s definitely a passion of mine,” she says. “I’m looking forward to a long night of reckless dancing.”
But she’s also emerged as thoughtful as ever.
“It’s gonna be a funny year to look back on, isn’t it? Whether it will just all disappear and it’ll be like a strange dream, who knows? But it’s definitely been a strange one,” she says. “The world has collectively been on pause, which I don’t think any of us ever imagined in our lifetimes.”
Calling the pandemic “a collective near-death experience,” she’s noticed that people don’t seem to sweat the small stuff as much, and muses that we’ve all become a lot more resilient. As for her, it’s affected the way she values time.
“I think it has shown us that, as we know subconsciously but don’t often have to face, time is not infinite. I think it makes what you do more meaningful,” she says. “There seems to be a kind of collective calming down, and maybe slightly more appreciative of what we have.”
Whatever she ends up doing next, it’s going to be unexpected.
“I can feel a kind of anarchy, something with a bit of anarchy brewing. Something that is going to test me, and something just a little bit left-field,” she says. “Having had this moment in history, you definitely want to do something that’s going to count and, I don’t know, feel like a bit of a shock wave.”
The Last Letter From Your Lover, starring Felicity Jones, is available to stream on Netflix on July 23. Photos by Parisa Taghizadeh/Netflix
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