Page 80 - S Summer 2024

Dress by Dior; ring and necklace by Tiffany & Co.
in a self-prescribed “re-evaluation era.” “I’m looking for the next phase
of my relationship with fashion, which I think will probably end up
somewhere in a ‘less is more’ category, with moments—because I don’t
want to kill the joy—where I can have fun and experiment and express
myself,” she says. Above all, she’s looking for ease.
When Jones first starred on our cover, in a menswear-inspired tuxedo,
it was in support of On the Rocks, a Sofia Coppola film that co-starred
Bill Murray as her father, as the two investigated Jones’s character’s
husband’s faithfulness, often to comical ends. Just before Jones began
filming, she lost her mother, Peggy Lipton, to cancer, which brought
grief into focus for her. “When it happens, it’s so raw and so confronting
that you can’t even believe that that’s how it’s designed for everybody,”
she says of the loss. Grief is something she explores once more in Sunny,
albeit through her character Suzie’s acerbic brand of humour. “I think
the feeling is really hard to put into words, and I, for one, will say that
I don’t think I would have made it through my grief if I didn’t have
comedy and I didn’t have a way to cope and deal with it,” says the
star. “So hopefully that’s in there, and the fact that Suzie’s an acerbic,
nihilistic character, means she deals with her own loss through comedy.
Hopefully that’s something people can relate to.” Even in a parallel
universe, humour gets you through.
When I ask Jones what’s coming next for her, she rhymes off a flurry
of goals, which include gardening, writing, being a mom, and reuniting
with her Parks and Recreation co-stars to work on a much-hyped reunion.
“Amy [Poehler] and everybody really want to feel like there’s a reason
to assemble the Parks people and that there’s an organic calling for the
characters, but there’s a whole universe to explore still that nobody’s
even seen. So yeah, everybody’s ruminating,” she says.
Jones also has another sci-fi project coming out, a film called In the
Blink of an Eye, directed by Andrew Stanton. Starring Daveed Diggs
and Kate McKinnon, the film weaves the history of the world through
three interconnected stories. Most of all, she’s looking to work with
collaborators who are either mentors or lifelong friends. “[Director]
Mike Nichols, who was a great family friend and mentor to me and so
many people—his whole thing was ‘no assholes.’ Can’t do it. Life is too
short,” she says. “Work is still work, even if it’s creative, and I’m lucky
enough to have this wonderful career and do this expressive thing,
whether it’s writing or directing or producing—but no assholes.”