‘Star Wars’ Lead Felicity Jones Demands Equal Pay While Breaking Gender Barriers

Felicity Jones is paving the way for females. This month, she is taking the cover of Glamour magazine, talking inside about leadership, equal pay for women, and life out of the public eye.

The English actress has a deep résumé, playing strong, intelligent and take-charge women from Jane Hawking in "The Theory of Everything” to Sienna Brooks in “Inferno.” She even given the nickname Tiny Warrior. “I'm small. I'm petite. But I'm a bit of a fighter inside. In my work I fight for, I hope, showing women in a true way. They've got brains.”

Now, Felicity is fighting for equal pay among women in film, lending her voice to the cause along with A-listers Jennifer Lawrence and Patricia Arquette. “I want to be paid fairly for the work that I'm doing,” she says. "That's what every single woman around the world wants. We want to be paid on parity with a man in a similar position. And I think it's important to talk about it. It's brave of those women to come forward and make a point about it.”

Last year's highest-paid actress, Lawrence's $52 million for the year was far short of Robert Downey Jr.'s earnings of $80 million.

Felicity is hoping to pave the way for the younger generation of actresses to come forward and speak up. "Now younger actresses will have a confidence in those discussions with their agents and be able to say, 'Can we make sure that I'm being paid the right amount for the work that I'm doing?'”

A self-described tomboy, the 33-year-old mentions, “My mother was in the kind of late-sixties, early-seventies origins of female emancipation. And she was very much like, 'You're not going to be defined by how you look. It's going to be about who you are and what you do.'”

The influence of her mother may have been part of her feminist values, “I've always been a feminist, and what I love in my work is being able to explore a full-sided woman and not patronize her."

In her next powerful role, Jones takes on the role of Jun Erso, the leader of a band of rebels in the new "Rogue One: A Star Wars Story."

When describing Jyn, Jones says, “She's a bit of a wounded animal when you meet her. There were moments when she's been blown over, she's scrambling to get up, and she falls. It's important that she's not perfect. [The director] Gareth [Edwards] and I, we want to see her being a human being. She's obviously completely her own woman, but I felt like [she] was a rather beautiful blend of Luke Skywalker and Han Solo — and that came up in discussions around designing the costume.”

When creating the strong chatter Jyn, the production wanted to be cautious not to over sexualize her. “Everyone wanted to create a character that was not in any way objectified. We didn't want to sexualize Jyn… We don't even see Jyn's arms! That's not her priority. She's a survivor, and she has a mission to complete.”