Felicity Jones was in a mall in her native England when she learned about her second Oscar nomination. “I was going up the escalator,” she tells PEOPLE in this week’s 2025 Oscar Portfolio, which is on newsstands Friday. “I was just doing some last-minute shopping, and I got the call and spoke to my publicist and agents and was kind of cheering as I was going up the escalator.” Fellow shoppers, she adds, were “probably looking around going, ‘What is she doing?’” At 41, Jones is a Best Supporting Actress Oscar nominee this year for The Brutalist, in which she plays Hungarian-Jewish immigrant Erzsébet Tóth. The Brady Corbet-directed, Adrien Brody-starring film earned 10 nominations, including Best Picture, from the Academy on January 23.
“It’s just been a fantastic celebration of the film. I mean, we never quite expected the reception that we have had,” says Jones. “You don’t get this many opportunities. So I am trying to enjoy every minute of it.” For the Rogue One: A Star Wars Story star, The Brutalist marks a return to the Oscar stage. Her first nomination, in 2015 for Best Actress, was for the Stephen and Jane Hawking biopic The Theory of Everything, where she starred alongside Eddie Redmayne.
Jones expresses a deep appreciation for the journey she has taken over the past decade. “I feel as though I’ve been through a lot personally, some big changes,” she notes, pointing out that exactly ten years have passed between her nominations. Among those changes is becoming a mother to two kids with her husband, Charles Guard. “It’s consistent juggling all the time,” says the actress of her work-life balance. “It really makes your time very precious, having a family, and so [working] becomes even more meaningful. And particularly in the films that I’ve been lucky enough to do, they’re projects that I have really loved reading the scripts, and have invested wholeheartedly into because when you work on something, it really has to count.”
At the 97th Academy Awards, which will be held on March 2 in Los Angeles, Jones is nominated alongside Monica Barbaro, Ariana Grande, Isabella Rossellini, and Zoe Saldaña. As far as her Oscar look goes, she says she has “a very good idea” of how to follow up her gray Alexander McQueen ball gown from 2015. “I’m very excited about it,” she teases, noting she’s currently in the process of various fittings. “Fashion has been something that I’ve always been fascinated by and enjoyed. I’m looking forward to wearing the dress that I’ve picked.”
Hosted by Conan O’Brien, the 2025 Oscars will air live from the Dolby Theatre at Ovation Hollywood on Sunday, March 2, at 7 p.m. ET on ABC and Hulu. Jones’ reflection on her journey highlights the significance of her experiences in both her personal life and professional career, marking a decade of transformation that has shaped her into the talented actress she is today.
