Emilia Jones, the guest on this episode of The Hollywood Reporter’s Awards Chatter podcast, is one of 2021’s biggest breakouts. She’s a 19-year-old Brit who has been acting professionally since she was just eight, but who took things to a whole different level over the past year or so with her portrayal of Ruby Rossi, a hearing child of deaf adults who is torn between remaining at home to help her family and leaving to pursue her dreams, in Sian Heder‘s CODA, which opened the 2021 Sundance Film Festival; was awarded Sundance’s U.S. Grand Jury Prize, U.S. Dramatic Audience Award, the best director prize for the U.S. Dramatic section and a special jury ensemble cast award en route to a record-setting $25 million worldwide distribution deal with Apple; and has since been nominated for the best picture Oscar. Its leading lady, meanwhile, won the best breakthrough performer Gotham Award and is nominated for the best actress BAFTA Award, best young actor/actress Critics Choice Award and, along with her castmates, the best ensemble SAG Award.
Over the course of this conversation, Jones reflects on her path to performing and the ups and downs she experienced as a child actor; how, around the same time, she landed the leads of both the Netflix series Locke and Key and CODA and how she prepped for both multidimensional characters; what it’s been like becoming a star during a global pandemic, and what she’s got lined up next; plus much more.
