Why Sully From The Midnight Sky Looks So Familiar
On December 11, 2020, Netflix released in select theaters the highly anticipated post-apocalyptic sci-fi film The Midnight Sky, directed by and starring George Clooney. Based on the novel Good Morning, Midnight by American author Lily Brooks-Dalton, the film centers on scientist Augustine Lofthouse (Clooney), who lives in the Arctic and studies how the universe began. After a global catastrophe kills most of the world's population with extreme radiation, Augustine makes it his mission to contact a spaceship coming back from Jupiter to warn the astronauts of Earth's situation.
Mission Specialist Sullivan, known as "Sully," is in charge of the spaceship traveling back to Earth and must work with her crew members to fix the ship after the communications system is damaged. They are traveling back from a journey to Jupiter's moon K-23, which they found to be habitable. Sully is played by Oscar-nominated actress Felicity Jones – a familiar face for many, as she's starred in a handful of fantastic projects the past few years, with her star continuing to rise. Not sure where you remember her from? Here's a rundown of Jones' biggest roles.
Felicity Jones plays star-crossed lover Anna in Like Crazy
In 2011, Like Crazy, starring Jones and the late Anton Yelchin as a star-crossed couple, came out and drew a lot of attention for the cast's great acting and the unique nature of how the movie was filmed. The film's team made Like Crazy with a budget of only $250,000 and the dialogue was largely improvised, as director Drake Doremus discussed with The Economist back in 2012. Well-received by critics and audiences, the movie won the Grand Jury Prize at Sundance that year. Alongside Jones and Yelchin, Like Crazy also features another rising star of the time, Jennifer Lawrence, in a supporting role.
Jones plays a young woman named Anna, a British exchange student who falls in love with Yelchin's Jacob while studying in America — so in love, in fact, she decides to overstay her visa. After she returns to London for a family event, Anna attempts to travel back to Los Angeles where Jacob is, but is detained at the airport and sent back to the United Kingdom. As Anna begins the legal process of revoking the ban on her visa, the two must work through a difficult long-distance relationship and decide if their love is worth all the effort.
Though Jones as been acting since 1996, Like Crazy was one of the first big projects that really brought her into the public eye.
Felicity Jones portrays Jane Hawking in The Theory of Everything
Jones really started getting attention for her acting when The Theory of Everything was released in 2014. The biopic focuses on the life of the late Stephen Hawking, played by Eddie Redmayne, with Jones playing his wife Jane. The Theory of Everything is based on Jane's 2007 memoir Traveling to Infinity: My Life with Stephen, which details her life and romance with Hawking, including their divorce in 1995 and later reconciliation. The film also stars an extensive cast of talented English actors like Charlie Cox, Emily Watson, and David Thewlis. Jones' performance was nominated for an Academy Award, Golden Globe, BAFTA, and many more awards — and The Theory of Everything as a whole was very well-received by critics, sitting an 80 percent score on Rotten Tomatoes.
Hawking, who's well-known for his monumental work in physics and cosmology, dealt with the debilitating illness of amyotrophic lateral sclerosis — commonly known as ALS — all his life, but never let it stop him; he lived long past what doctors predicted, a testament to his strength and resilience. Hawking approved of the film's depiction of himself and his life, even allowing them to use "his own, trademarked computerized" voice for authenticity, as writer Anthony McCarten shared in an interview with Variety.
As for Jones' performance in The Theory of Everything, Jane Hawking told BBC that she was "astounded" by Jones, feeling like she was "on the screen and in a cinema seat at the same time" when watching the movie.
In Rogue One, Felicity Jones plays rebel hero Jyn Erso
Off her dramatic turn as Jane Hawking, Jones landed a role in 2016's Rogue One: A Star Wars Story, the spin-off film that takes place shortly before the events of A New Hope, the first film of the original saga. Rogue One follows a crew of rebels who come together to steal the plans for the Death Star, the Empire's most destructive weapon. It was the first in what Lucasfilm aimed to be a series of one-off films, each designated with the subtitle "A Star Wars Story." The next film in the series is 2018's Solo.
In Rogue One, Jones plays Jyn Erso, a young woman whose loss of her parents at a young age drives her to fight against the Galactic Empire and help the Rebel Alliance. She works alongside a crew that includes Cassian Andor, played by Diego Luna (who will be getting his own series on Disney+ soon), and others like Bodhi Rook (Riz Ahmed) and Chirrut Îmwe (Donnie Yen). The film was relatively well-liked by Star Wars fans and regular audiences alike, who praised the performances and the darker tone of the story.
Felicity Jones is Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg in On the Basis of Sex
In 2018, Jones took on the huge task of bringing an iconic woman to life on the silver screen: Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg, who died in 2020 at the age of 87, after a long and impressive life fighting for the rights of the underrepresented.
In On the Basis of Sex, directed by Mimi Leder, Jones portrays Ginsburg from her early journey to become a lawyer through cases on gender equality and other important issues, leading to her appointment to the Supreme Court. On the Basis of Sex was also released around the same time as another critically acclaimed film about Ginsburg: the documentary RBG.
Many critics noted that although On the Basis of Sex doesn't quite live up to the legacy and presence of its monumental subject — a very hard thing to do — it is a successful biopic with great acting and a positive and honest message, depicted through an accurate portrayal of Ginsburg's early years. According to many reviews, Jones' performance as Ginsburg is excellent and holds great credence, really invoking the woman's strong personal character and intelligence.