Felicity Jones Defends Those Wife/Girlfriend Supporting Roles

Much has been made of the quality of acting roles for women. For every powerful heroine telling her own story, there are dozens of women cast as the "wife of" or "girlfriend of" the male lead.  It's something Felicity Jones knows a lot about. The British actress was nominated for a Best Actress Oscar for her role as Jane Hawking, wife of Eddie Redmayne's Stephen, in 2014's The Theory Of Everything. She's next set to star as Jonah Hill's wife Jill in True Story, out this month. In an interview with the New York Post, however, Jones insists that these supporting roles — and we'd argue that her work in The Theory of Everything was much more than that — are more important than they may appear. “I feel like ‘wife’ or ‘girlfriend’ has this terrible reputation [as roles for women], but I think she [the character] absolutely has to be just as interesting as the male character, she has to be a vital person,” Jones told the newspaper. “Even if you’re doing a supporting role and you’re not on-screen all the time, I think it’s important [the audience] feels that person has a life beyond the screen." Clearly, Jones has succeeded at fleshing her characters, leading and minor, out. But can you blame us for wanting to see her — and other talented actresses — take the lead? Hollywood, make it happen.