Felicity Jones on playing the “unlikely heroine” of Rogue One

Last Updated on August 5, 2021

As with just about everything in the STAR WARS franchise, ROGUE ONE: A STAR WARS STORY has been shrouded in secrecy for most of its life, but now that the film is just a few months away, those involved can begin responding to questions with something other than "no comment." Speaking with Entertainment Weekly, ROGUE ONE star Felicity Jones discussed her character of Jyn Erso and how she's not the most obvious hero in the galaxy.

She is absolutely a very unlikely heroine, she’s someone on the edges and fringes of society. Physically, she’s smaller than everyone else around her, but… when someone has something they believe in, that’s what powers them, that’s what motivates them, that’s what can give someone enormous strength.

It sounds like Jones put that enormous strength to good use as she found the role to be "physically exhausting." The actress added that "it took a lot of hours of practice, and I worked with a kung fu coach, and I learned to fight, even though I never thought beating up Stormtroopers was something I’d be doing in my job. It came through hard work and lots of practice and rehearsals.” Despite the physicality of the role, ROGUE ONE: A STAR WARS STORY director Gareth Edwards says that he chose Felicity Jones because she wasn’t “so kick-ass and shields-up that the audience couldn’t empathize with her.”

There were a lot of people who could learn how to fight and beat people up and do the physical side of it. For me, the most interesting thing is when there’s a crack in the armor, when you can glimpse the vulnerability in someone. You can just hang the camera on Felicity and not say a word, and you can feel her having a million different thoughts. You get interested in what she’s thinking and what’s going on. She can be very observant within a scene. It doesn’t always have to be about her directly, but we’re experiencing it through her. She just has that knack for pulling you in.

ROGUE ONE: A STAR WARS STORY is set for a December 16, 2016 release.