Emilia Jones wished nothing greater than to ebook the function of Maeve Prendergrast after assembly with Brad Ingelsby about “Task,” his upcoming HBO collection. However one query he requested throughout their preliminary assembly left her puzzled: “Are you good with kids?”
The actor, who broke out within the 2022 greatest image Oscar winner “CODA,” hadn’t but learn a script for the crime drama, however she enthusiastically replied sure to Ingelsby’s query.
As soon as she began studying the script, Jones shortly realized that the function she was about to land — for a 21-year-old girl who places her life on maintain to take care of her younger cousins — would require her to work carefully with younger actors.
“A lot of the time, because I started acting when I was younger, I was the kid,” Jones stated over Zoom from her native London. “It’s really interesting for me to be on the other side of that.”
“Task,” which premieres Sunday, follows two males on reverse sides of the legislation. Mark Ruffalo performs FBI agent Tom Brandis, who kinds a activity pressure to apprehend a bunch of criminals as they perform a string of violent robberies focusing on drug homes. The chief behind the robberies is unsuspecting and sympathetic single dad Robbie Prendergrast (Tom Pelphrey), who depends on his niece Maeve (Jones) to take care of his younger youngsters. The collection is about in Delaware County, Pa., similar to Ingelsby’s earlier HBO hit “Mare of Easttown.”
Jones described Maeve as robust and unapologetic, however she thinks of herself fairly otherwise: “I’m a little bit of a people pleaser, as most Brits are,” she stated. “We just apologize for our shadow and I’m very much like that.”
In HBO’s “Task,” Emilia Jones performs Maeve Prendergrast, who places her life on maintain to take care of her younger cousins.
(Peter Kramer/HBO)
Entering into a personality so not like herself, Jones wished to make sure she was deeply linked along with her scene companions and felt grounded in Maeve’s world, so she shortly befriended Kennedy Moyer, Oliver Eisenson and Ben Lewis Doherty, the three youngsters who seem within the collection. She went bowling and performed basketball with Moyer and Eisenson, who play her character’s elementary-aged cousins, on weekends through the shoot.
Constructing these friendships with the children made her job as an actor a lot simpler, Jones stated: “I did love Kennedy and Oliver and I wanted to protect them,” she stated.
Jones additionally bought her three younger co-stars considerate wrap presents — one thing that was all the time significant to her when she was a toddler and was usually damaged up in regards to the concept of not seeing her new pals from set day by day anymore. For Doherty, who confirmed an curiosity in pictures, Jones went with a Polaroid digicam and the suggestion he make a scrapbook from the shoot. For Eisenson, whose character had a penchant for repeating “chicken butt,” she bought him a hat inscribed with the phrase. And for Moyer, whom she nonetheless texts right this moment, Jones bought a necklace with Harper, the identify of Moyer’s character, on the entrance and “Sisters forever” on the again.
Slipping into the motherly function each in entrance of and behind the cameras seemed to be “effortless” for Jones, stated author and creator Ingelsby. The youngsters “were in love with her from the first hour they met,” he stated. “Maybe it was her experience of having been on sets and having people care for her. But I also just think Emilia is a really caring, kind person — that’s a part of who she is.”
Jones, who began performing professionally at 8, stated she “fell into acting kind of by accident.” Her dad and mom are each artistic individuals — her father is Aled Jones, a musician and radio presenter — however she says they knew nothing in regards to the performing world when she bought her begin. Nonetheless, they supported her ambitions, schlepping her to and from auditions and performances, and their artistic natures helped her to see {that a} profession within the arts “wasn’t off-limits,” she stated.
By the point Jones was 13, she was engaged on the movie “Brimstone,” the place a late-night shoot full with a rain machine and adrenaline coursing by her veins solidified in her thoughts that this was the suitable path for the younger actor, who’s now 23.
“I remember it so vividly — I was sitting in my chair, and I was like, ‘I want to do this for the rest of my life. This is feeding me in some way I can’t describe,’ ” she stated.
Jones’ dad and mom weren’t pushing her to audition for each function she may, and so they wished to maintain her at school so she may very well be “a normal kid,” which she stated she resented on the time. “I just wanted to be acting all the time,” she stated. “But now I look back and I’m really grateful.”
Emilia Jones knew at an early age that she wished to make performing a profession: “I remember it so vividly — I was sitting in my chair, and I was like, ‘I want to do this for the rest of my life. This is feeding me in some way I can’t describe.’ ”
(Justin Jun Lee/For The Occasions)
The actor has now appeared in a number of notable initiatives — the Netflix collection “Locke & Key”; indie movies “Fairyland,” “Cat Person” and “Winner”; and has a number of new initiatives coming quickly — and her dad and mom are nonetheless supporting her each transfer, generally from straight behind the digicam. Her mom, Claire Fossett, acted as her off-camera scene accomplice in Jones’ audition for “Task.”
Whereas Fossett is not any stranger to the self-tape, having filmed Jones’ “CODA” audition, too, the actor stated her mom “absolutely hates” recording along with her — her mom’s shyness means she tends to learn traces as quietly as doable, Jones stated.
For “Task,” Jones requested her bashful however affected person scene accomplice to redo one scene, an explosive combat Maeve has with Robbie, fairly just a few instances, desperate to get the proper take. “I said, ‘Could you just give me a little something?’ She was like, ‘Absolutely not,’ ” Jones stated, laughing on the reminiscence.
When she revisited that high-octane scene on set with a extra prepared scene accomplice in Pelphrey, Jones stated going tête-à-tête with him was a riveting expertise: “I forgot that there were cameras rolling.”
Most of the emotional scenes Jones had reverse Pelphrey had been filmed in just some days. “We were like back-to-back screaming, but I kind of liked that because it was just all-consuming. I was so in Maeve’s world and in her headspace,” she stated. “And I’m really grateful that I was the Maeve to his Robbie.”
Ingelsby recalled watching a pivotal scene between Jones and Pelphrey and being struck by the “fierceness” of Jones’ efficiency. “That’s what a great actor can do; they can elevate material in a way that I can’t,” he stated. “It’s hard for me to be good at one thing. Emilia is just so good at so many things.”
Moving into Maeve’s mindset was simpler for Jones when she bought into the character’s costuming. In contrast to her personal model, Maeve clothes in darkish colours with heavy, metallic jewellery and sports activities a shaggy mullet. Jones stated her hair continues to be recovering after the actor “razored” it for the function. She additionally opted to get further ear piercings for the collection.
Maeve clothes in darkish colours with heavy, metallic jewellery and sports activities a shaggy mullet — not like Emilia Jones’ ordinary model. “It was really fun just being someone so different to myself.”
(Peter Kramer/HBO)
And as soon as she was done-up in head-to-toe costuming, Jones stated the remainder got here fairly naturally.
“I found that I started to sit differently and walk differently and it just changed my whole body language,” she stated. “It was really fun just being someone so different to myself.”
Jones additionally needed to swap her British accent out for a thick, distinctive Delco accent, because the dialect spoken by these from Delaware County is affectionately referred to as. Practising was made simpler by repeat viewing of Ingelsby’s “Mare of Easttown.”
She had already seen the collection two or thrice earlier than engaged on “Task,” she estimates, however when she was studying the specificities of the regional accent, she stated listening to another vocal inflection on TV was distracting, in order that quantity bumped as much as about 10 full viewings of the collection.
“I’ve got to keep in the Delco mindset,” she stated. “And it’s not just an accent, it’s an energy.”
Jones is effectively acquainted with heavy prep work — for “CODA,” she realized American Signal Language to play the one listening to member of the Rossi household and how you can fish. She likened that breakout function along with her “Task” character, saying they every have “the weight of the world on their shoulders.”
Whereas Jones stated her characters’ experiences of shouldering undue accountability and feeling trapped are overseas to her, she says she likes to leap in toes first when she’s met with a problem.
And she or he’s not slowing down anytime quickly. This fall, Jones will seem within the extremely anticipated adaption of Stephen King’s “The Running Man” alongside Glen Powell. She additionally educated as a chef to star within the romance film “Charlie Harper,” reverse Nick Robinson, and can seem in A24’s upcoming Anthony Bourdain biopic, “Tony,” the place she says she performs a ’70s lady in Provincetown, Mass.,” she stated — lots of the movie’s particulars are nonetheless beneath wraps.
“When I’m pushed and challenged is when I do my best work,” she stated. “I feel like I’ve really earned wrapping a project if I felt challenged and pushed out of my comfort zone.”
And it’s secure to say sporting tattoos, mastering the artwork of a wonderfully positioned Delco “youse” and being the one taking care of the children on set, as an alternative of being the child herself, fall effectively past that consolation zone.
