Justice Is Served

As she takes on the notorious US Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg for her latest role, Felicity Jones tells Afua Hirsch about the importance of unashamed ambition, marrying a feminist and why she’ll always be proud of her Birmingham roots.

When you watch a Felicity Jones film, you may think you are being entertained.

And rightly so: you’d be hard-pushed to find someone who hasn’t enjoyed the force-of-nature performances behind her Oscar, Golden Globe and Bafta nominations – from Jyn Erso in Star Wars spin-off Rogue One to Stephen Hawking’s unstoppable other half in The Theory Of Everything. But here is an actress with an agenda. ‘I’m fascinated by how culture intersects with political changes,’ Jones tells me when we meet in a brightly lit Italian cafe in central London. ‘Obviously it’s never a direct effect, but what interests me is how we shift ideology through entertainment.’

Jones, 35, has plenty of ideas about how to shift ideology. A lifelong feminist, she wants crèches on sets as well as equal pay – she reportedly earned more than her male Rogue One co-stars. But today she is talking explicitly about her latest, and most overtly ideological, role as US Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg, whose life and career she depicts in On The Basis Of Sex.