The “Rogue One” actress just wrapped “The Aeronauts,” in which she plays a circus performer and hot air balloon pilot.
One of the guests at the circus tent setting for the Christian Dior show Monday afternoon felt right at home. “Rogue One” actress Felicity Jones had just a week ago wrapped filming “The Aeronauts,” in which she plays a circus performer and hot air balloon pilot.
“It’s a real magical adventure story, so this is totally fitting,” she said. Even the acrobatics seen during the show were nothing to scare the rising performer — the role saw her shooting in a hot air balloon.
“It’s pretty amazing, actually, because you go up so gently it’s not quite as scary as you think it’s going to be because it’s a slow incline, but then suddenly you’re 2,000 feet up looking out of the balloon and thinking, ‘Wow, it is actually quite high up here.’”
Maria Grazia Chiuri had called on acrobatic troupe Mimbre to perform as part of the circus-inspired show, framing the models as they walked the runway. “She wanted Mimbre to come with a team of all-female acrobats,” Lina Johansson, artistic director and cofounder of the London-based company, who began work choreographing the project with 18 performers in November, explained backstage before the show.
“Maria Grazia is so inspiring in how she’s celebrating female artists, female role models, [she] put these strong women on the runway with the models, celebrating women of all shapes and sizes,” Johansson said.
While Mimbre had never worked on a fashion show before, it specializes in taking its performances to unconventional settings. “We like putting them where people don’t expect to see it, and in that way it was very similar,” she said of the project.
