Felicity Jones reflects on ‘Midnight Sky’ and its moving final scene



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Midnight sky sees Jones playing astronaut Sully, who, on a return trip to Earth, learns that humanity has been wiped out. His only contact on the planet is Augustine (Clooney), a dying scientist with a warning for Sully’s ship: don’t go home. The movie is packed with spectacular scenery and great sci-fi concepts, but it’s a low-key final conversation between Sully and Augustine that turns out to be the film’s most moving moment.

“George had already shot his role so I got to watch it, which was really helpful to then inform what I was doing on my side,” Jones says. The Hollywood Reporter. “That’s what I liked about the script when I read it. It’s what made me want to do it, it’s this central relationship, this need for the two to find each other. “

The scene confirms that Augustine is, in fact, Sully’s father, and Jones has prepared as much as possible for the time being, with Clooney reading off-camera with her that day.

“I thought about it a lot, thought about it a lot, in preparation,” Jones says of the scene. “Luckily I was turning it towards the end of our schedule, so I really felt like I had Sully and who she was and could give her everything I had.”

The public noticed the timeliness of Midnight sky, to come for months when people crave connection amid a global pandemic. For Jones, the film took on added resonance as it is also a time capsule of her actual pregnancy.

Clooney incorporated Jones’ pregnancy into the film, written by Mark L. Smith, after notifying the director before filming that she was going to be a parent.

“It always feels like Sully would be pregnant,” Jones says, noting that her character had a daughter on Earth in Lily Brooks-Dalton’s novel.

While the final scene had an added impact with Augustine saving not only her daughter, but her grandson as well, the conversation hasn’t changed from the original storyline.

“It was there at the very beginning that it would be a meditation not only on Augustine’s relationship with Sully, but also on Sully’s relationship with her child,” Jones says. “That’s why blood is such a feature of the film. You see the blood go through the tubes early on when Augustine is doing chemotherapy. It’s kind of an understanding of those relationships, of what ultimately makes sense to us. “

Although Jones left the Star wars galaxy behind her Rogue One Co-star Diego Luna is currently filming the prequel series Andor for Disney +. Jones still fondly thinks of a week of filming in the Maldives to capture the sacrifice between her Jyn Erso and Cassian Andor de Luna, who both die so that Death Star plans can make it into the hands of the rebels.

“We shot it every night for a week to get the right sunset light, to get the perfect pink light, so we knew that scene inside out by the end of the week,” Jones says. “It was just amazing to see how it turned, changed and changed. We shot this film in a very visceral, naturalistic, gritty way, which I think is the reason so many people responded to it. I think they loved that it was so real. and had elements from the 70s Star wars films that had this similar feeling of naturalism and reality. “

Jones will next be seen on Netflix Your lover’s last letter, an adaptation of the novel by JoJo Moyes. It focuses on Ellie (Jones), a journalist from London who discovers love letters from the 1960s that tell the story of lovers crossed by stars played by Shailene Woodley and Callum Turner. Jones, who also produces the film directed by Augustine Frizzell, aspired to do something tinged with comedy and was also looking to collaborate with Moyes.

“There was a real warmth to the story,” Jones says. It really is a feel-good movie. It’s funny, things are moving. I think people will enjoy watching it with chocolates and a tall glass of wine. “

Jones is aware that in these troubled times, cinema can offer an escape, as a viewer but also as an actor. Is reflected on Midnight sky, a memory that stands out is to imagine the landscape of K-23.

Said Jones: “I got a strong visual impression of George showing me pictures.… I think I was thinking of a beach in Italy. I just tried to think of a place that had a lot of peace and happiness. “



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