10 Things You Didn't Know About Felicity Jones

By Tom Baker /

5. Helen Mirren Is Her Mentor

If anything put Jones on the map as a credible actor, however €“ besides comedic turns in the likes of Girls and Ricky Gervais's Cemetery Junction €“ it was the 2010 screen adaptation of Shakespeare's The Tempest, directed by Julie Taymor, who's otherwise best known for the unparalleled Broadway disaster Spider-Man: Turn Off the Dark. This was better, though! Well, it did have Russell Brand in it. But it also had Helen Mirren as the gender-swapped Prospera, the sorceress mother to Jones's Miranda. Which is a dynamic which apparently followed the two actors through into real life, as since then Mirren has acted like something of a mentor to Jones. €œI just love the way she works - in a very straightforward, un-flashy way - and she achieves great things,€ Jones has since said. €œThe way she behaved was something I wanted to emulate. She's very calm and she doesn't ever let how others perceive her get in the way of her work. She's completely un-jaded.€ Considering Mirren is one of the UK's acting national treasures, there are worse role models to have.