‘My dad text my mum “What the hell? She’s done it!” Aled Jones’ actress daughter Emilia, 19, ‘blown away’ to receive BAFTA nomination as she goes head to head with Lady Gaga
Actress Emilia Jones, who played the leading role in film Coda, was ‘blown away’ to learn she had been nominated for a Bafta award.
The 19-year-old daughter of Welsh singer Aled told the PA news agency she was asleep during the live announcement on Thursday because ‘never in a million years’ did she think she would be considered ‘against such talented nominees’.
The actress plays Ruby Rossi in the critically acclaimed movie – the only hearing member of a deaf family who dreams of going to Berkley.
Nominee: Actress Emilia Jones, who played the leading role in film Coda, was ‘blown away’ to learn she had been nominated for a Bafta award
Emilia, who is up for leading actress alongside Lady Gaga, Joanna Scanlan and Tessa Thompson, said: ‘I’m just so grateful that people loved Coda because I did work so hard. I was 17 when we shot so I had a big, big work load for 17, so it’s nice people are being so lovely.
‘I trained for nine months with American Sign Language and had singing lessons too because I loved singing, but I’d never had a singing lesson before, but I also had to learn how to fish, so I’d wake up at 3am every morning for two weeks and we’d go out three miles at sea and catch fish for hours and hours, and the Massachusetts accent, I had to learn that too.
Emilia also revealed that her dad has been ‘so supportive’ of her career. ‘My dad text my mum, “what the hell, she’s done it”,’ she revealed.
Famous family: Emilia’s father Aled found fame as a gifted boy soprano and later as a TV presenter, recording artist and concert performer (pictured in 2015 with mum Claire and brother Lucas)
Acclaimed: The actress plays Ruby Rossi in the critically acclaimed movie – the only hearing member of a deaf family who dreams of going to Berkley
‘They’re so supportive and they’ve sacrificed a lot for me to do this so I’m very grateful to have them.
‘You always have to make sacrifices… there have been times for me where I have been invited to things with my friends and I haven’t gone because I wanted to work and better myself as an actor and focus on my auditions. You say no more than you say yes but you shouldn’t let it get you down.’
Emilia discussed her nine-month journey learning sign language for her turn CODA during an appearance on This Morning last month.
The rising star spoke about her desire to represent the deaf community, explaining: ‘The sign language and the singing I had to work the most on, I trained for nine months. It was a lot of hard work but it was so rewarding when I finished.
Rising star: Emilia, who is up for leading actress alongside Lady Gaga, Joanna Scanlan and Tessa Thompson, said: ‘I’m just so grateful that people loved Coda’
‘Our director wanted everything to be authentic. I went away and worked on the sign and thought it was really moving. I showed my American Sign Language director and she burst out laughing and she said, “you’ve just told me you had indigestion.”
‘CODA stands for child of deaf adults and my character Ruby is a CODA. I spoke to a lot of CODAs in preparation because I’m representing a community I don’t belong to so I wanted to do it accurately.
‘To be deaf is so much more than sign language, it’s an experience no hearing person can understand.’
Her efforts paid off, after she recently won the Verified Hollywood Music in Media Award for Best Onscreen performance.
The film has also received a plethora of award show nods, including a Critics Choice Award nomination for Emilia in the Best Young Performer category.
Vogue has hailed the actress as ‘2022’s Breakout Star to Watch’. Her father Aled found fame as a gifted boy soprano and later as a TV presenter, recording artist and concert performer.
Aled, from Llandegfan, Anglesey, was 16 when he ended his four-year career as a boy soprano, during which he sold six million records, gave a private performance for Charles and Diana and sang at the Vatican.
A stint at Bristol Old Vic Theatre School followed and by the age of 25, he was back on stage as the lead in Joseph And The Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat. Despite standing ovations every night he could not escape the feeling that something was missing.
Committed: Emilia discussed her nine-month journey learning sign language for her turn CODA during an appearance on This Morning last month
It was then he met his wife Claire, and the two married in 2001, welcoming two children: Emilia and Lucas.
Emilia’s acting career began when she was just eight-years-old when she won small parts in the film One Day and Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides.
She was later praised for her small performance in an episode of Doctor Who.
The same year she made her theatrical debut after playing the princess Young Fiona in the original cast of Shrek the Musical in London.
Rewarding: he said: ‘The sign language and the singing I had to work the most on, I trained for nine months. It was a lot of hard work but it was so rewarding when I finished’
At the time her father was blown away by her performance, saying: ‘She’s a little rocket. She’s not scared of anything.
‘‘It’s what she wants to do, who am I to stop her? I just worry because I don’t want her to get a job – or not get a job – because of me.’
She would later appear in Rebecca Lenkiewicz’s stage adaptation of Henry James’s The Turn of the Screw.
In December 2018, she landed her big break when it was announced that she was cast as Kinsey Locke, one of the main characters in the Netflix fantasy drama series Locke & Key.
BAFTAs 2022: THE NOMINATIONS
Best Film
Belfast
Don’t Look Up
Dune
Licorice Pizza
The Power of the Dog
Outstanding British Film
After Love
Ali & Ava
Belfast
Boiling Point
Cyrano
Everybody’s Talking About Jamie
House of Gucci
Last Night in Soho
No Time To Die
Passing
Best Film: Dune is up for the big going as well as 10 more gongs
Leading Actress
Lady Gaga, House of Gucci
Alana Haim, Licorice Pizza
Emilia Jones, CODA
Renata Reinsve, The Worst Person in the World
Joanna Scanlan, After Love
Tessa Thompson, Passing
Leading Actor
Adeel Akhtar, Ali & Ava
Mahershala Ali, Swansong
Benedict Cumberbatch, The Power of the Dog
Leonardo DiCaprio, Don’t Look Up
Stephen Graham, Boiling Point
Will Smith, King Richard
Supporting Actress
Caitríona Balfe, Belfast
Jessie Buckley, The Lost Daughter
Ariana DeBose, West Side Story
Ruth Negga, Passing
Aunjanue Ellis, King Richard
Ann Dowd, Mass
Leading Actress: Lady Gaga has a nod for House of Gucci
Supporting Actor
Mike Faist, West Side Story
Ciarán Hinds, Belfast
Troy Kotsur, CODA
Woody Norman, C’mon C’mon
Jesse Plemons, The Power of the Dog
Kodi Smit-McPhee, The Power of the Dog
Director
Aleem Khan, After Love
Ryusuke Hamaguchi, Drive My Car
Audrey Diwan, Happening
Paul Thomas Anderson, Licorice Pizza
Jane Campion, The Power of the Dog
Julia Ducournau, Titane
Outstanding Debut by a British Writer, Director or Producer
After Love
Boiling Point
The Harder They Fall
Keyboard Fantasies
Passing
Original Screenplay: Being the Ricardos is up for the gong
Adapted Screenplay
CODA
Drive My Car
Dune
The Lost Daughter
The Power of the Dog
Original Screenplay
Being the Ricardos
Belfast
Don’t Look Up
King Richard
Licorice Pizza
EE Rising Star Award
Harris Dickinson
Millicent Simmonds
Lashana Lynch
Kodi Smit-McPhee
Ariana DeBose
EE Rising Star Award: Bond star Lashana Lynch is nominated
Cinematography
Dune
Nightmare Alley
No Time To Die
The Power of the Dog
The Tragedy of Macbeth
Animated Film
Encanto
Flee
Luca
The Mitchells vs The Machines
Documentary
Becoming Cousteau
Cow
Flee
The Rescue
Summer of Soul (Or, When the Revolution Could Not Be Televised)
Costume Design: Cruella has been nominated
Film Not in the English Language
Drive My Car
The Hand of God
Parallel Mothers
Petite Maman
The Worst Person in the World
Costume Design
Cruella
Cyrano
Dune
The French Dispatch
Nightmare Alley
Make Up & Hair
Cruella
Cyrano
Dune
The Eyes of Tammy Faye
House of Gucci
Original Score: Don’t Look Up is up for a gong
Original Score
Being The Ricardos
Don’t Look Up
Dune
The French Dispatch
The Power of the Dog
Editing
Belfast
Dune
Licorice Pizza
No Time To Die
Summer of Soul (Or, When the Revolution Could Not Be Televised)
Production Design
Cyrano
Dune
The French Dispatch
Nightmare Alley
West Side Story
Sound
Special Visual Effects
British Short Animation
Casting
Boiling Point
Dune
The Hand of God
King Richard
West Side Story
Editing: Black and white film Belfast is nominated
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