Felicity Jones shares the secret to the success of Dan Brown’s Robert Langdon films

FELICITY Jones says there’s a simple reason why Dan Brown’s Robert Langdon franchise has raked in over a billion bucks at the box office.

FELICITY Jones reckons there’s a pretty simple reason why author Dan Brown’s Robert Langdon franchise (The DaVinci Code, Angels and Demons) has raked in over a billion bucks at the global box office.

“They’re just good for a Friday night and some popcorn, aren’t they,” laughs the British actor down the line from Florence, where she’s promoting the franchise’s latest instalment, Inferno.

“Not everything has to be scrutinised and picked apart. Some movies are just purely good fun — they’re a good mystery, and a good ride. I mean, why not?”

In Inferno, Jones plays Sienna, an ER doctor who ends up careening around Italy with Tom Hanks, who’s reprising his role as the perennially endangered symbologist Robert Langdon.

This time around, Langdon is suffering from a severe case of amnesia and Sienna must help him stop a nasty virus being set free on the world by a demented billionaire (no, not Donald Trump, but a rather menacing Ben Foster) to rid the world of half of its population.

(Things, of course, are not as they seem, but there’ll be no spoilers here.)

Inferno director Ron Howard, actors Tom Hanks, Felicity Jones and Ana Ularu at the movie’s premiere in Florence, Italy. Picture: Ernesto Ruscio / Getty for Sony Pictures Entertainment

Aside from the obvious benefits of working with Hanks (“he’s so down to earth, no star attitude at all, and phenomenal work ethic”) and director Ron Howard (“he’s one of the best, and he makes actors feel less self-conscious, which is not easy”), Jones wasn’t averse to spending a few months on location in Italy.

“There are not many times when you’re shooting when you get to go and look at Botticelli’s Primavera in between shooting, I mean, that’s pretty unique,” she says. “Plus it was much, much kinder on the actors than being in a studio for seven months.”

Indeed, at just 32, Jones has rarely stopped working. As a child she played Emma Grundy in the BBC radio drama The Archers, before later appearing in period dramas — Northanger Abbey and the 2008 film Brideshead Revisited.

But it was her performance in the wonderful — and largely improvised — 2011 film Like Crazy, which really saw her career take off.

“I just have wonderful memories of that film,” she says. “I learned so much.”

Sadly, Jones’ Like Crazy co-star Anton Yelchin died in a freak car accident in June.

“That film was all about Anton,” recalls Jones. “He was someone who questioned everything. He was an inquisitive spirit, an extraordinary person to work with and one of my greatest friends. It’s a difficult time for his family and friends.”

Felicity Jones as Jane Hawking in her Oscar-nominated role as The Theory of Everything. Picture: Supplied

Another career moment she’s still trying to come to grips with is her 2015 Oscar nomination for her role as Jane Hawking, wife of physicist Stephen (played by Eddie Redmayne), in The Theory Of Everything.

“I think I’m still processing it,” she says. “I don’t think I’ve quite got to the point where I can realise that it’s real. Maybe that won’t happen until I’m a really old granny.

“And then think suddenly, gosh, that was so cool. I mean, it’s sort of, your wildest dreams, that something like that happens. So you try to enjoy every bit of it.”

There were, however, other unexpected Oscar issues.

“There are so many outfit changes that a lot of the time you’re just thinking about what outfit you’re going to wear next. I mean, I love fashion, but it is ridiculous.”

Things, however, are about to get a hell of a lot bigger than even an Academy Award nomination.

Felicity Jones as Jyn Erso in a scene from the film Rogue One: A Star Wars Story, which is released on December 15. Picture: Lucasfilm LFL

Come December, Jones will be seen as rebel fighter Jyn Erso in the stand-alone Star Wars film Rogue One.

“I do have nerves about it,” Jones says, groaning slightly. “It’s a franchise that’s so beloved and we all want to do it justice. We loved making it — it’s such a special, special film, that we can’t wait for people to see it.”

And though plot details are predictably vague, we do know this; Jones’ rebel fighter Jyn Erso is entrusted with the mission to steal plans for the Death Star so Luke Skywalker can destroy it.

As is always the way when it comes to anything Star Wars-related, online fan forums are running rife with theories. (The current favourite is that Jones’ Erso is Rey’s — from The Force Awakens — mum.)

“She’s an underdog; she’s not your usual sort of warrior,” says Jones, who adds that her diminutive 160cm stature made her “an unlikely heroine”.

Jones says that it’s crucial women continue to front major studio blockbusters.

“It’s vital,” she says. “As we’re seeing in politics, it’s a world where women are becoming leaders of nations, and films should be reflecting that.”

Jones is well aware that Star Wars fans are going berserk at the prospect of the upcoming instalment — she’s witnessed it up close.

“We went to Star Wars Celebration, which is a Star Wars convention, and it was so wonderful — it’s such a special fanbase, the Star Wars world. People are just so excited for it — they’re devoted to these characters. They really support you. It’s a very warm audience,” she says, enthusiastically.

“Obviously, you’re in a studio for months and you’re making these films and it was wonderful to start to see the feedback and the affection people have and the warmth. It’s absolutely exhilarating. I just can’t wait for it to come out.”

SEE Inferno opens today. Rogue One: A Star Wars Story opens December 15

Originally published as Felicity Jones shares the secret to the success of Dan Brown’s Robert Langdon films