Felicity Jones is already a familiar face to many film fans, thanks to her Oscar-nominated role in 2014's Stephen Hawking biopic The Theory of Everything.
However, she looks set to become one of the most famous women on the planet when the first stand-alone Star Wars spin-off film, Rogue One – in which she plays Rebel Alliance hero Jyn Erso – is released in December.
Before then, she has another high-profile role in Inferno, the third film based on the Robert Langdon series of novels by Dan Brown.
The actress realises that nothing can truly prepare her for the level of fame that is imminent through her introduction to the world’s biggest film franchise.
“Am I ready for that fame? No, of course not, not at all,” she says. “I don’t know how you can be ready for that.
“There’s a bit of responsibility involved, I guess, when you make the decision to take these films on and you do them and people are going to watch them, and hopefully enjoy them. I’m just going along for the ride and taking each day as it comes.”
Before travelling to a galaxy far, far away, we can catch her in the distinctly more down-to-Earth setting of Florence, as the female lead in Inferno. How easy is it to switch from filming in real, historic, ancient buildings and digitally constructed sci-fi otherworlds?
“It’s good fun to go from one extreme to the other,” she says. “I enjoy doing both. It’s a very unusual experience when someone is shouting: ‘OK, now act like you’re in hyperspace’ – and you’re going: ‘Well, how do you act in hyperspace?’
"But that's the charm with Star Wars and having adventures in a galaxy far, far away. It's nice to do things that are different and refreshing, and both Ron Howard [Inferno's director] and Gareth Edwards [director of Rogue One: A Star Wars Story] have proved themselves to be really fascinating filmmakers."
cnewbould@thenational.ae