The adaptation of the Patrick Ness’ YA novel A Monster Calls stars Lewis MacDougall as Conor, a boy whose world around him is collapsing before his eyes. His mother, Lizzie (Felicity Jones) is dying of cancer, his estranged father lacks the capacity to love his son, and his grandmother is a stickler for keeping things neat and tidy. To add to his pressure, he is constantly bullied at school. So Conor finds inner peace with “a monster” he created, a monster that helps guide him through his difficult time and gives him the courage to not only stand up to his fear but face an ultimate truth.
We had a chance to talk to Felicity Jones about her role in the film and how it could inspire others to stand up to the worst bullies. “I believe that we have to be strong and hopeful,” said Jones. “I do think they’re difficult times. I hope that filmmaking an stop any kind of tyranny, or, and give us understanding of each other, and that ultimately what I think we should be aiming towards is empathy for each other.”
While Jones will be playing a strong female character that leads a squad of supporting males to steal the plans to the Death Star, in “A Monster Calls,” we see he play a more grounded role of a cancer stricken mother who remains strong for her son. She gets that inspiration from the strong woman she surrounded herself with. “I guess I’ve been surrounded by very strong women in my life, and I am always keen to show them as honestly as possible, and-and all the sides, and the strong bits and the more vulnerable sides. But not just women, just human beings, you know.”
The actress credits the women she met who had cancer to help her performance feel more authentic. “I like to kind of get really stuck in and understanding what that person is going through,” said Jones. “I met with women who have had cancer, and luckily had survived it, and I went and met them.” She added that one of the women she had met with talked about how it affects people emotionally, and how “physical side of how chemotherapy affects the body.”
These discussions helped Jones find the honesty of their experience. But she also discovered something about these women. “I found with these women who, you know, they just didn’t want to be defined by it,” said Jones. “The thing that appears always the same, is people just want to go back to being normal.”
As for what attracted her to the film, Jones says a lot of that had to do with the script, which then lead to her reading the book written by Patrick Ness – who also wrote the screenplay for the film adaptation. The actress then met with director J.A. Bayona. “I could just see he has such honesty in what he does in his work,” said Jones. “He would just do such a truthful and unsentimental film, really.”
On her fellow co-stars, Jones said her young co-star, Lewis Macdougall “works very hard. She added, “It wasn’t like we had to do anything special for him,” said Jones. “We were just all in awe of him really, and he gave it everything. He just always come out with the most kind of insightful, credible things and ideas about the character and the script.”
She had the same thing to say about her other co-star, Sigourney Weaver, who plays Lizzie’s mother. “It’s always the work comes first, and comes before ego,” said Jones. “And she’s definitely one of those.”
The cast would often spend time together during their time off going to watch films like Guardians of the Galaxy or spend time at the nature park. The young actress did admit she wasn’t a fan of zoos because of how they are kept in cages, but the cast started to feel like a family when they started to shoot in Barcelona, where Bayona is from. “We’d go and eat seafood and things like that in between,” said Jones. “They really looked after us. I think that the team, the producers and the director, they have that lovely way of it-it wasn’t just like come in and do it and then go home, we don’t want to see you. To create a little community for that time is very inclusive.”
A lot of excellent rapport has to do with how well the cast worked with its director. “He’s really kind of loved filmmaking since he was a child. It’s been something he’s wanted to do his entire life, and I think that comes through,” said Jones. “He doesn’t take on easy stories.” She cited his directorial effort on The Impossible, where he tackled the tsunami that struck Southeast Asia. I think he’s a very special director. He’s doing, actually, Jurassic World next, so it’s going to be interesting to see what he does with dinosaurs.”
A Monster Calls is in theaters now and is rated PG-13
