Felicity Jones only spoke in a Brooklyn accent whilst filming ‘On The Basis Of Sex’.
The Oscar-nominated actress plays Ruth Bader Ginsburg – who is now Associate Justice of the Supreme Court of the United States – in the upcoming legal drama, which follows her lifelong battle for gender equality in American legislation.
Jones has revealed that in preparation for her role she would only speak in a heavy American drawl on set, especially as Ginsburg had major involvement in the script development process because her nephew, Daniel Stiepleman, was writing the flick.
Speaking on BBC Radio 2’s The Zoe Ball Breakfast Show’ on Wednesday morning (13.02.19), Jones said: "Stiepleman – who is a lovely chap – wrote the screenplay and he initially asked his aunt [Ginsburg], he was a little nervous asking his aunt because she is a formidable woman, and she said, ‘If that’s what you want to spend your time doing then go ahead.’
"She has a very distinct dry sense of humour which really comes out in the film and she has captured that and they have been on board from the beginning and Ruth has seen all the drafts, like the good lawyer that she is and she gave meticulous notes throughout the process of developing the script. I was a crazy person. They were thinking who is this Brit who has come along with her Brooklyn accent all day. I definitely challenged in many ways being an outsider, I was a Brit going in to that situation, and like Ruth herself, she was an outsider consistently, trying to enter a world that was very male dominated. So really had to push against that to prove herself. I channelled that in the way I played her and focused on her drive."
‘The Theory of Everything’ actress also confessed she has "weird idiosyncrasies" to help make her first day on set "bearable", including wearing her character’s shoes on the lead up to filming to help calm her nerves.
She added: "I have all sorts of weird Idiosyncrasies and rituals and so I try and think of all these things that make that first day more bearable, and I’ve developed all of these weird quirks along the way and one of them is wearing the shoes that you’re going to be wearing for the shoot, so you can get use to the feel of them."
Felicity Jones only spoke in Brooklyn accent on new film
