“The Aeronauts” reunites Felicity Jones with Eddie Redmayne five years after they costarred in “The Theory of Everything,” but the pair’s rematch wasn’t inevitable for director for Tom Harper.

“Initially we thought it might be an inhibiting factor,” Harper says, sitting with Jones in the Rosewood Hotel in London during the BFI London Film Festival. “But then we sat with it for a few days and you’ve got to go with the people you think are right for the part. And maybe it would be a great thing — there’s a long history in Hollywood of great duos working together over the years.”

The filmmakers put out the ask to the pair simultaneously and received a resounding yes from both. Jones was thrilled to be cast opposite Redmayne again since the actors have developed a strong sense of trust over the years, something she felt was particularly important for the role of gas balloon pilot Amelia Wren, who is enlisted by scientist James Glaisher to ascend higher than anyone has ever gone. It’s a period piece but also an action film and psychological drama, requiring a depth and range of emotion from its lead actress.

“When you have that safety, that’s when you can take risks,” Jones says. “You feel like you can make a fool of yourself in front of someone else because you’ve built the trust over many, many years, and I think that’s when really exciting work starts to happen. There has to be anarchy to get something interesting.”

To create Amelia and James’ journey, the filmmakers built a replica 19th century gas balloon and shot aerial scenes in actual flight and in a studio with blue screens. Careful thought was put into each level of the balloon’s ascent, considering the temperature, air quality and potential effect on the human body as the journey progressed.

To replicate the feeling of cold at higher elevations, Harper put Jones and Redmayne in a “cold box,” a confined space that lowered the temperature to below zero Celsius. Some of that visible breath coming out of the actors’ mouths is real, as are their shivers and glassy eyes. The actors even plunged their hands into buckets of ice before takes to amp up the chaotic feeling.

“Basically they just chucked freezing cold rain on us with wind machines for a few weeks,” Jones remembers, laughing. “We were in so much pain to shoot those scenes. I think the three of us just sort of whipped each other up into a spirit of masochism. We definitely learned to hit the limits, Eddie and I.”

When Felicity Jones was about 5 or 6 years old, one of her favorite things to wear was a pink bathing suit with a belt around the middle. One of her favorite things to do, while clad in this amazing outfit, was to climb to the highest diving board at the pool and fearlessly fling herself into the water below.

“I was like a little piggy floating through the air,” she told Parade.com during a recent interview at the Roxy Hotel in New York City. Why are we not surprised she ended up playing a showstopping, stunt-pulling hot air balloon pilot in The Aeronauts?

However, it hasn’t been a consistent climb to get to this point. At 36, the Birmingham, England, native said she isn’t quite so quick to find the highest point on a structure and stare down at what awaits her below: “Now, I would think twice…I’ve become more fretful. Now in high hotels or buildings I think, ‘Where’s the exit?’”

For her latest film, though, she had to access a little of her inner 5-year-old daredevil.

In The Aeronauts, Jones plays the fictional aeronaut Amelia Wren, who in 1862, attempts to fly higher than any human has ever gone. She is joined by non-fictional scientist James Glaisher, played by Eddie Redmayne.

Jones’s character, she explained, is based on real-life, 18th-century French aeronaut Sophie Blanchard, who would put on big shows complete with fireworks as she charmed audiences from the air. At one point in the movie, Jones, as Wren, has to climb to the very top of the balloon, which is a scene that will make anyone—fearful of heights, or not—queasy. This is the scene that clinched it for Jones; she wanted to be the woman to complete that feat onscreen.

“It felt like there was a real kind of responsibility to bring this woman aeronaut to audiences, and I loved the scene toward the end where she climbs on top of the balloon—not to give anything away—and the blend of emotion and action,” she says.

Wren is a young widow, much like the real Blanchard whose husband fell to his death after having a heart attack while they were flying in a balloon over the Hague. As the film progresses, audiences learn that Wren’s husband’s death was also a traumatic one that left her with a lot of pain. Even still, she slaps on stage makeup, climbs to dangerous points of the balloon and waves to the audience as she and her flying partner take off high into the sky. She even attaches a parachute to her dog and sends it floating down to a mesmerized crowd.

The actress and Clé de Peau brand ambassador tells PEOPLE how she keeps her skin glowing amid a busy press tours

In 2019, Felicity Jones joined forces with Eddie Redmayne for The Aeronauts, wrapped filming The Last Letter From Your Love opposite Shailene Woodley, adjusted to life as a newly-wed and confirmed she’s pregnant with her first child.

So as to be expected, it’s hard for the actress, 36, to find downtime: “It’s been a very rewarding and busy year so far…it’s been fab[ulous],” the Clé de Peau brand ambassador tells PEOPLE.

But when she does find a rare moment for herself, Jones unwinds by indulging in a lavish — and somewhat “ritualistic” — beauty routine, which she adopted after visiting Clé de Peau’s headquarters in Asia (the luxury brand is owned by Japanese cosmetics company, Shiseido).

“I’ve learned so much since I started working with the brand, particulary when I visited Japan and saw the level of skincare they have out there,” the On the Basis of Sex star says.

“For me, it’s about taking the time out to just concentrate on yourself, which is a rare thing, and being quite meditative about it,” she says. “I love lying in the bath with a face mask on. That’s my thing.”

As for her specific routine, Jones loves the Clé de Peau serum which she smooths on her skin with a facial roller “in the evening and then again in the morning,” she says. “I also love the Clé de Peau La Crème and use it on a daily basis, particularly in the evening. It’s great to have something on your skin overnight, so that you wake up the next morning lovely, and flushed, and nourished.”

I have added some new photos of Felicity Jones to the gallery. Go there to enjoy the pics!

Who hasn’t dreamed of going up to the sky and touching the clouds? In 1962, James Glaisher and his pilot, Henry Coxwell, went up to a record-setting 36,000 feet. The journey undertaken by these scientists is dramatized in the new film, The Aeronauts. Directed by Tom Harper, The Aeronauts stars Eddie Redmayne as Glaisher and Felicity Jones as a fictional character, Amelia Wren, who is based on a composite of several real-life balloonists, including Sophie Blanchard and Coxwell himself.

The Aeronauts is at once an intimate story about two people trying to find their place in the world, a celebration of the scientists who push the boundaries of what is possible, and a harrowing thrillride with some of the most creative and amazing action of any film this year. Jones and Redmayne are perfectly paired as misfits on a mission to prove themselves to anyone and everyone who ever doubted them, while the jaw-dropping special effects speak for themselves.

While promoting The Aeronauts, Felicity Jones sat down with Screen Rant to discuss her work on the film, from reuniting with her co-star from The Theory of Everything to tossing a dog out of a hot air balloon (don’t worry, the pooch is fine!). She discusses the pressures of acting in such a confined space as a balloon basket and the challenges that come from filming action scenes while surrounded entirely by blue screens.

The Aeronauts is out in theaters now, and releases on Amazon Prime streaming on December 20.

I know you shot some stuff up in the air in an actual balloon, but I imagine a lot of the movie is you and Eddie in a box surrounded by blue screens.

Yes. It was an interesting juxtaposition, actually. They built a balloon for real, hand-made, that we took on a flight on our first day, doing these helicopter shots, wide shots of us in the initial scenes where they’re taking off. So we kind of went from this incredible, absolutely real experience to something that was Eddie and I in a blue room with blue walls and blue carpet for hours and hours in a very small space. We’re definitely an experience in extremes.

I really don’t like to talk about private life of Felicity Jones, but I think this is a good new to share with all the fans. Congratulations!!!

The ‘On the Basis of Sex’ actress and ‘The Uninvited’ director tied the knot in July 2018.

Felicity Jones and Charles Guard are expecting their first child together, a rep for Jones confirms to The Hollywood Reporter.

The Oscar-nominated actress and the British filmmaker, best known for his 2009 psychological horror movie The Uninvited, dated for three years before tying the knot on July 2018 at Sudeley Castle in the Cotswolds, Oxfordshire, in England.

Amid her expectant news, Jones stepped out Wednesday in New York City alongside Eddie Redmayne for the premiere of their new film, The Aeronauts.

Jones, best known for playing Ruth Bader Ginsburg in On the Basis of Sex and Jyn Erso in Rogue One: A Star Wars Story, has been private about her life with Guard.

Yet during a December 2014 interview with The Telegraph, the actress opened up about her outlook on love.

“I am definitely romantic, and I love romantic stories — that’s why I keep making romantic movies. It’s funny how seeing a love story never gets boring, because it’s the dream, isn’t it?” she said at the time. “It’s the dream to have a true connection with another human being.”

[Source]