The Task star Emilia Jones opens up about getting lost in her role as Robbie’s niece
SPOILER ALERT! This story contains details from the season finale of Stain on HBO.
Emilia Jones takes it as a compliment that while playing the emo niece of a criminal uncle in Stainno one realized she previously played the only hearing member of a deaf family in the 2021 Oscar CODA.
“I went to the Rangers game last night and someone said to me, ‘I didn’t recognize you without your mullet.’ And then someone else said to me, ‘Well, I didn’t recognize her with the mullet.’ So many people texted me saying they didn’t realize it was me until episode three or two,” Jones admits from CODA role which earned him a BAFTA nomination. “It’s such a compliment. That’s what I love about acting. I love playing characters that you can completely disappear into. That was my goal and I’m very happy that people didn’t realize it was me.”
Here, the British actress who also played the title character in Reality in 2024 Winner and Kinsey in Lock and key tackles Sunday’s adrenaline-filled finale and where she thinks her character has taken Robbie’s kids now that they’re unharmed.
DEADLINE Let’s start with the last episode. Talk about high octane.
EMILIE JONES It was so much fun because I love stunts and it was the highlight of the show. We all worked together to make this scene so much more than we thought it could be. Sam Keeley, who plays Jayson, took one look at me before we started shooting this sequence and said, “Let’s do this.” Let’s go. We deviated slightly from the script and had this back and forth. My adrenaline was so high the whole time and it was a really, really difficult scene but so much fun to shoot.
DEADLINE In the end, how do you think Maive felt about Robbie, played by Tom Pelphrey?
JONES I think Maeve is devastated, obviously, when Tom [Mark Ruffalo] tells him that Robbie is dead. Maeve was long torn by his choices, and she saw the risks, the moral compromises, the danger he brought into the family. But at the end of the day, he was still her uncle and he was deeply connected to her life. Even though Robbie placed a lot of responsibilities on Maeve, she knew she always had someone looking out for her. So it’s an absolutely huge loss. I think Maeve realized that Robbie’s heart was still in the right place. Whatever he did, he was trying to protect his family.
DEADLINE What was it like working with Tom?
JONES He is such a generous actor. Building the relationship between Maeve and Robbie has been such a joy with Tom because it’s a complicated relationship. There’s a lot of resentment towards Maeve, conflicting emotions and anger, but at the same time there’s so much love between them. Tom and I hung out a lot between filming. We would go to museums and dinners and do this trippy room at the children’s museum and wear 3D glasses. Basically, we spent five hours laughing. It really helped us bond. It was easy then to play on anger and difficult emotions because there was so much trust and love between us.
DEADLINE You were a real child wrestler in this area. Have you ever worked with so many children on a project?
JONES It’s funny, creator Brad Ingelsby, when I first talked to him about this project, ended the Zoom before reading the script and said, “Do you like kids?” This was such a random question to ask. I was like, yeah, I love kids. Who doesn’t? And then I read the script and I was like, oh, okay, I get it. I started acting when I was 8, so I saw myself in the kids. I remember when I was on set when I was young, someone would give me a gift or something and it just meant the world to me. So I tried to do that with the kids. For Ben Doherty, who plays Sam, it was one of his first projects. He was so happy to be on set. So I bought him a little Polaroid camera so he could take pictures of the whole team and make a little album to remember everyone for the rest of his life.
DEADLINE Which kid called your character a chicken asshole again?
JONES It was little Oliver Eisenson, who plays Wyatt. Wyatt loved saying chicken asshole as much as Oliver loved it. It wasn’t improv, but he loved being able to say it. A lot of those kinds of scenes were improvised because Oliver is such a ball of energy and he’s so perfect for Wyatt, so they just kept the camera rolling and let him do his thing.
DEADLINE Where would you like to think Maeve and the kids went in the end?
JONES I thought about it so much. I just hope Maeve can get the support she needs because for much of her life she had to put things on pause and never put herself first. I’d like to think she’s living a happy life with Harper, Wyatt, and the family they are, but at the same time she’s able to grow as a person and learn to do a few things on her own, because my god, she deserves it.
DEADLINE was Stain a game changer for you?
JONES I mean, CODA was a real game changer and I’m very grateful for that. It was a real whirlwind. The whole awards season was such an incredible and unexpected experience. I felt so lucky to have been a part of this film. I was 17 and had never signed or sung before. For every skill required for this movie, I got a big NO from every single one. And for some reason, the director Sian Hader took a risk and cast me. I will be forever grateful to Sian and for this film. CODA allowed me to be a part of Task and I am very grateful for that. This task has truly enriched my life. Maeve came to me at a time when I really needed it. I found filming the show really cathartic and learned a lot about myself.
DEADLINE What have you heard about the future of Stain?
JONES I got wind of it [being an anthology]and I really hope that happens. Brad is such an incredible writer and I think his characters are so complex and complex. The way he portrays the moral ambiguity of the characters is very intriguing and is what drew me to Task and to Mare of Easttown. I think it would be a shame not to keep this world alive.
