Jones plays the faun and the pale creature in Pan's Labyrinth, two roles that require completely different physicalities inside heavy makeup. The performances are built on movement alone, since the face is not his and, in one case, is not where a face should be at all.
He trained as a mime and contortionist before acting, and that background is the foundation of his career: he is cast for what he can do with a body rather than for a face or a voice. He has worked repeatedly with a small number of directors who build creatures around his specific capabilities.
Recurring subjects: otherness played sympathetically, creatures given genuine interiority, and performance conveyed entirely through posture and gesture. He works with extraordinary physical control, holding poses that are anatomically punishing, and he approaches each creature as a character with a history rather than as a costume.
His creature performances are among the most admired in fantasy cinema, and his role in a later film by the same director, as an amphibious being in a romance, drew significant attention to how much of that performance was his. He is a standard reference in arguments that creature acting is acting.
For viewers who want to see what a performer can do with a body alone. Suited to anyone approaching the fantasy film, and to those who should then look up which other creatures were also him.
