{"id":2171660,"date":"2025-11-22T02:21:18","date_gmt":"2025-11-22T02:21:18","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/?p=2171660"},"modified":"2025-11-22T02:21:18","modified_gmt":"2025-11-22T02:21:18","slug":"joel-edgerton-and-felicity-jones-say-theyd-be-happier-living-in-the-past-exclusive","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/joel-edgerton-and-felicity-jones-say-theyd-be-happier-living-in-the-past-exclusive\/","title":{"rendered":"Joel Edgerton and Felicity Jones Say They\u2019d Be Happier Living in the Past (Exclusive)"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><\/p>\n<div data-article-body=\"true\">\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">Just because two actors want to work together doesn\u2019t mean it\u2019s ever going to happen. <strong>Joel Edgerton<\/strong> knows this. <strong>Felicity Jones<\/strong> does, too.<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">So when the Australian actor heard that he and Jones were both circling <em>Train Dreams<\/em>, he knew he had to seal the deal. \u201cWe happened to run in to each other a couple of times when Felicity had started to talk to [the director] about it,\u201d he recalls. \u201cShe was drawn to the film for her own reasons, but I was very much like, \u2018Can you, like, please, please <em>please<\/em>?!\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">She said yes. And more than a year later, Edgerton (<em>The Gift, The Great Gatsby<\/em>) and Jones (a 2025 Oscar nominee for <em>The Brutalist<\/em>) are sitting shoulder-to-shoulder in a posh London hotel room for their <em>Parade<\/em> interview to discuss their widely acclaimed new movie.<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\"><strong><a rel=\"nofollow\" target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/parade.com\/newsletters\/daily?utm_source=article&amp;utm_medium=top\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\" data-ylk=\"slk:\ud83c\udfacSIGN UP for Parade\u2019s Daily newsletter to get the latest pop culture news &amp; celebrity interviews delivered right to your inbox\ud83c\udfac;elm:context_link;itc:0;sec:content-canvas\" class=\"link \">\ud83c\udfacSIGN UP for Parade\u2019s Daily newsletter to get the latest pop culture news &amp; celebrity interviews delivered right to your inbox\ud83c\udfac<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">Set in the Pacific Northwest during the early part of the 20th century, <em>Train Dreams<\/em> (now streaming on <a rel=\"nofollow\" target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/parade.com\/tag\/netflix\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\" data-ylk=\"slk:Netflix;elm:context_link;itc:0;sec:content-canvas\" class=\"link \">Netflix<\/a>) is a reflective and gorgeous character study that focuses on stoicism in an ever-changing world. Edgerton\u2019s Robert is a logger and railroad worker who finds comfort in his marriage to Gladys (Jones), the couple\u2019s modest rural home and their young daughter. But work constantly pulls him away . . . and then a tragedy upends his world. The drama, which world-premiered at the <a rel=\"nofollow\" target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/parade.com\/tag\/sundance-film-festival\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\" data-ylk=\"slk:2025 Sundance Film Festival;elm:context_link;itc:0;sec:content-canvas\" class=\"link \">2025 Sundance Film Festival<\/a>, currently sits at 95 percent on Rotten Tomatoes.<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">\u201cIt dares to strive to do something a bit different than the typical cinema experience,\u201d Edgerton says. \u201cIt\u2019s a celebration of an ordinary life.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">It\u2019s not quite accurate to describe the actors\u2019 offscreen lives the same way. Edgerton, 51, who broke out in the 2010 drama <em>Animal Kingdom,<\/em> has 4-year-old twins with his partner, <em>Vogue Australia <\/em>editor Christine Centenera; the 42-year-old Jones, a native Brit, has two small children with her husband, film director Charles Guard. FYI, they\u2019re also part of the <em><a rel=\"nofollow\" target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/parade.com\/tag\/star-wars\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\" data-ylk=\"slk:Star Wars;elm:context_link;itc:0;sec:content-canvas\" class=\"link \">Star Wars<\/a><\/em> universe \u2014\u00a0she starred in 2017\u2019s <em>Rogue One<\/em>, while he played Luke Skywalker\u2019s uncle Owen in two movie prequels and the 2022 series, <em>Obi-Wan Kenobi.<\/em><\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\"><strong>Related: <a rel=\"nofollow\" target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/www.yahoo.com\/entertainment\/movies\/articles\/star-wars-just-took-universe-123348784.html\" data-ylk=\"slk:Star Wars Just Took Its Universe Somewhere It\u2019s Never Gone Before;elm:context_link;itc:0;sec:content-canvas;outcm:mb_qualified_link;_E:mb_qualified_link;ct:story;\" class=\"link  yahoo-link\">Star Wars Just Took Its Universe Somewhere It\u2019s Never Gone Before<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">The pair talk about <em>Train Dreams<\/em> and more to <em>Parade.<\/em><\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\"><strong>Parade: How do you describe this movie to people?\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\"><strong>Felicity Jones:<\/strong> If you go through the film, it functions on two levels: Someone dies very early on in the film, and from that point on, you&#8217;re completely drawn in. You can&#8217;t stop watching it because of the violence, and sometimes it&#8217;s quite unexpected. So yes, it is meditative and reflective. But at the same time, there&#8217;s something actually more aggressive going on underneath.<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\"><strong>Joel Edgerton:<\/strong> I think the violence is on the fringes everywhere. I\u2019ve heard the film described as a neo-Western, which is great.<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\"><strong>What do you make of life in the early 1900s? Do you think it was a better time back then?<\/strong><\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\"><strong>Edgerton:<\/strong> I do. If we suddenly woke up tomorrow and all of our smartphones and devices were just gone \u2014\u00a0like a <em><a rel=\"nofollow\" target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/parade.com\/tag\/black-mirror\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\" data-ylk=\"slk:Black Mirror;elm:context_link;itc:0;sec:content-canvas\" class=\"link \">Black Mirror<\/a><\/em> episode where everyone wakes up and every single person on the planet\u2019s cell phone had just vanished and we had to go back to an analog way of life \u2014 I think we would adjust very well. We&#8217;d be all the better for it.<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\"><strong>Jones:<\/strong> We\u2019d be happy again.<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\"><strong>Edgerton:<\/strong> We&#8217;d be happy, and we would talk to each other and connect with each other, and we&#8217;d be with the people that we\u2019re actually with instead of texting someone on the other side of the planet.<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\"><strong>Jones:<\/strong> But certain elements are better now. The advances in medicine are quite useful. You kind of want to pick and choose what you&#8217;d take with you. <\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\"><strong>Edgerton:<\/strong> I\u2019d pick my Nanny Cam.<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\"><strong>Joel, you realize you\u2019re just describing life in the \u201890s, right?\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\"><strong>Edgerton:<\/strong> Listen, I didn&#8217;t have an email address until the year after I finished high school. I consider myself a person of moderate intelligence. But I wonder how distracted and therefore uneducated I could have become if I didn\u2019t have access to the Internet. I&#8217;m not talking about frivolous things \u2014\u00a0like the discovery of stuff you love that you would have to go to a library for or meet someone extraordinary or weird or strange. I don&#8217;t know if the Internet would basically have made me a better or worse student or a better or a worse person.<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\"><strong>It&#8217;s easy to deduce that your characters have a special relationship because there are no other distractions.\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\"><strong>Edgerton:<\/strong> Yeah, we get to go hunting together. Felicity, do you want to go hunting?<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\"><strong>Jones:<\/strong> I\u2019d love to. Yeah, we\u2019re tapping into that quieter lifestyle \u2014 you can still find it when you&#8217;re in rural areas with a different pace. There is a slowness. But then they have different problems, and those problems are more, you know, about nature and what&#8217;s around them, and potentially animals. And so they&#8217;re having to adapt and survive.<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\"><strong>Edgerton:<\/strong> I feel like Covid became my cabin in the woods with my relationship. Yes, there was still the distraction of the Internet, and we could watch television and use our phones. But we hunkered down together. I can happily say that my relationship got better, and I realized not just that I love my partner, but I really liked her as well.<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\"><strong>Related: <a rel=\"nofollow\" target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/www.yahoo.com\/entertainment\/movies\/articles\/10-best-movies-tiff-2025-005842180.html\" data-ylk=\"slk:The 10 Best Movies at the 2025 Toronto International Film Festival, Including the People\u2019s Choice Award Winner;elm:context_link;itc:0;sec:content-canvas;outcm:mb_qualified_link;_E:mb_qualified_link;ct:story;\" class=\"link  yahoo-link\">The 10 Best Movies at the 2025 Toronto International Film Festival, Including the People\u2019s Choice Award Winner<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\"><strong>You\u2019re both parents as well. Do you bring that real-life role with you when you film a movie like this? \u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\"><strong>Edgerton:<\/strong> In terms of structure, it helped the movie. I started pre-production, and the first two weeks of the shoot I was on my own. So one of the reasons I connected with the character was because of that question of going away for work. I was alone. Then my family came to be with me in the middle of the shoot, and I was alone for the last part of it.<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\"><strong>Jones:<\/strong> Our children are similar ages to the child in the film, so you can&#8217;t help but draw on your own life.<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\"><strong>After being part of epic productions like those <\/strong><strong><em>Star Wars<\/em><\/strong><strong> films, is it nice to be in a movie that\u2019s more rooted in reality? Or do you prefer the best of both worlds?<\/strong><\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\"><strong>Edgerton:<\/strong> I mean, every film is its own machine. And films like this feel more bespoke. There&#8217;s a greater cadence to the momentum of shooting. This was a five-scenes-a-day kind of movie. On the bigger ones, they&#8217;re going to be lighting for three hours, so I better bring a good book to read. You work out how you fit into the machine. There&#8217;s something about a fast moving, smaller machine that suits me. It reminds me of the first movies I made in Australia. We were just like, \u201cCome on, guys, there&#8217;s a bear chasing us down the street!\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\"><strong>Jones:<\/strong> Ultimately, it doesn\u2019t really matter so much about big and small. It totally comes down to the atmosphere on set. And that atmosphere is usually set by the director.<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\"><strong>Edgerton:<\/strong> That&#8217;s a really good point, actually. If you could work on a big scale thing with the director and still care about the interpersonal relationships, then it doesn&#8217;t feel like you have been swallowed.<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\"><strong>Related: <a rel=\"nofollow\" target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/parade.com\/1399463\/alexandra-hurtado\/obi-wan-kenobi-season-2\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\" data-ylk=\"slk:The Latest on Obi-Wan Kenobi Season 2: What to Know About the Future of the Disney+ Series;elm:context_link;itc:0;sec:content-canvas\" class=\"link \">The Latest on Obi-Wan Kenobi Season 2: What to Know About the Future of the Disney+ Series<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\"><strong>Now that you\u2019ve spent so much time together, what have you learned about each other?\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\"><strong>Edgerton:<\/strong>\u00a0 I love that there&#8217;s a mystery to every actor. With Felicity, we had a really great time not overthinking it in a scene. I liked listening to her as we had conversations around the building of a fabric of this relationship and then just letting it play out.<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\"><strong>Jones:<\/strong> You don&#8217;t want to be having big, long conversations about what you&#8217;re doing! I\u2019ve also learned that Joel is a laugh a minute.<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\"><strong>You know Joel, it\u2019s still pretty jarring to hear that thick Australian accent.\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\"><strong>Edgerton:<\/strong> The beauty of being an actor is that transformational aspect. I didn\u2019t want to just play, you know, middle-class Australian dudes.<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\"><em>This interview has been condensed and edited for length and clarity\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\"><strong>Next: <a rel=\"nofollow\" target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/www.yahoo.com\/entertainment\/movies\/articles\/21-movies-watch-november-theaters-120000715.html\" data-ylk=\"slk:The Best New Movies to Stream or See in Theaters This November;elm:context_link;itc:0;sec:content-canvas;outcm:mb_qualified_link;_E:mb_qualified_link;ct:story;\" class=\"link  yahoo-link\">The Best New Movies to Stream or See in Theaters This November<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\"><i>This story was originally reported by <a rel=\"nofollow\" target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/parade.com\/movies\/joel-edgerton-felicity-jones-train-dreams-parade-interview\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\" data-ylk=\"slk:Parade;elm:context_link;itc:0;sec:content-canvas\" class=\"link \">Parade<\/a> on Nov 21, 2025, where it first appeared in the <a rel=\"nofollow\" target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/parade.com\/movies\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\" data-ylk=\"slk:Movies;elm:context_link;itc:0;sec:content-canvas\" class=\"link \">Movies<\/a> section. Add Parade as a <a rel=\"nofollow\" target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/google.com\/preferences\/source?q=parade.com\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\" data-ylk=\"slk:Preferred Source by clicking here.;elm:context_link;itc:0;sec:content-canvas\" class=\"link \">Preferred Source by clicking here.<\/a><\/i><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<p><em> \u2018 The preceding article may include information circulated by third parties \u2019 <\/em><\/p>\n<p><em> \u2018 Some details of this article were extracted from the following source www.yahoo.com \u2019 <\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Just because two actors want to work together doesn\u2019t mean it\u2019s ever going to happen. Joel Edgerton knows this. Felicity Jones does, too. So when the Australian actor heard that he and Jones were both circling Train Dreams, he knew he had to seal the deal. \u201cWe happened to run in to each other a [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":2171661,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"jnews-multi-image_gallery":[],"jnews_single_post":[],"jnews_primary_category":[],"jnews_social_meta":[],"footnotes":""},"categories":[25172],"tags":[345518,387023,345517,304789,345515],"class_list":["post-2171660","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-entertainment","tag-felicity-jones","tag-film-director","tag-joel-edgerton","tag-sundance-film-festival","tag-train-dreams"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/11\/Joel-Edgerton-and-Felicity-Jones-Say-Theyd-Be-Happier-Living.jpeg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2171660","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2171660"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2171660\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2171662,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2171660\/revisions\/2171662"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2171661"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2171660"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2171660"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2171660"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}