Was there anything cut out that you hated to lose?
Felicity Jones
Ah, that's a good question. No, what I was so pleased about – because you make so many films (well, not so many, but the few films that I've made) and your idea of the script in your head is always completely different from what you see. And the way that Kim came across was exactly what I wanted. And I think due to [director] Phil Traill and Robin, the editor, I think they absolutely found her irreverence and charm, which is what I'd wanted from the very beginning.
But as an actor, you are at the mercy of the editing process, so you're always pleased when it comes out and all the choices that you made actually made it in. And with this film more than most, there were so many beats and usually they would just get cut or whatever but I think we all had the same idea for Kim and that's always a great thing.
Speaking of editing, there's a scene where you're doing something in the kitchen and they overlay the sound from a different scene. Was the scene written that way or did you actually shoot the scene they use the dialogue for?
Felicity Jones
That's when she's cooking, isn't it? No, they were going to just have music over it and then I think Phil felt that it would be nice just to build that relationship with the father [played by Bill Bailey] and that was an opportunity to do that in quite a subtle way. So Bill and I did the dialogue over the cooking scene at a later point.
The film has a brilliant cast, obviously. Was it as much fun to work on as it looked like it was?
Felicity Jones
An incredible cast. Especially, you know, Bill Nighy, Brooke Shields, Ed Westwick, Tamsin Egerton - Georgia King, who's fantastic. Isn't she brilliant? She's just so cool. And that was what was so easy about this film, because we did all genuinely get on with each other. And because we were all in a mountain resort and you kind of get slightly silly in mountain resorts, we definitely became very silly. But that's what you feel in the film, I think – you can sense that sort of joy and that's coming from us actually having a good time.
The way that Kim came across was exactly what I wanted...
What's your lasting memory of the shoot?
Felicity Jones
Well, being able to snowboard. That's something that I'd always wanted to do, so to be able to take that away is great. And also working with Bill Nighy – and I've just been working with him again on a David Hare film called Page Eight. Just to work with someone who's as experienced and gifted as him - it was such a great opportunity the first time, but to be able to do it again was brilliant.
What's your next project?
Felicity Jones
I'm doing a play, actually. I'm getting back on the boards, but [slows voice down to accentuate joke] a different kind of board. Ha ha!
Ha ha! That's very good. You'll be saying that a lot.
Felicity Jones
[Laughs] Yeah, exactly. Just came up with that one. That'll come up again. And I'm doing a play at the Donmar Warehouse called Louise Miller, a Schiller play. And I start rehearsing in April. And film wise, I'm just waiting to find something that I can get excited about. So I've done Page Eight and before Christmas I did a film called Cheerful Weather for the Wedding, which is a period film set in 1932 and a love story based on a wonderful little book by Julia Strachey, who was Lytton Strachey's niece.
And then another film called Hysteria with Maggie Gyllenhaal and that's about the invention of the vibrator. I play Maggie's sister. She's the lead and [it stars] Hugh Dancy as well, and Jonathan Pryce plays my father. It's set in Victorian England. And they'll both be coming out later in the year.
Ed Westwick Interview
Tamsin Egerton Interview