Chastain developed an interest in acting from an early age and made her professional stage debut in 1998 as Shakespeare's Juliet. After studying acting at the Juilliard School, she was signed to a talent holding deal with the television producer John Wells. She was a recurring guest star in several television series, and took on roles in several stage productions. After making her film debut at age 31 in the drama Jolene (2008), Chastain had her breakthrough in 2011 with six film releases, including the dramas Take Shelter (2011) and The Tree of Life (2011). She received Academy Award nominations for playing an aspiring socialite in the period drama The Help (2011) and a CIA analyst in the thriller Zero Dark Thirty (2012).
On Broadway, Chastain has starred in revivals of The Heiress (2012) and A Doll's House (2023). The latter earned her a nomination for the Tony Award for Best Actress in a Play. She is the founder of the production company Freckle Films, which was created to promote diversity in film, and is an investor in the soccer club Angel City FC. Chastain is vocal about mental health issues, as well as gender and racial equality. She is married to fashion executive Gian Luca Passi de Preposulo, and they have two children.
Early life and education
Jessica Michelle Chastain was born on March 24, 1977, in Sacramento, California,[1][2][3] to Jerri Renee Hastey (née Chastain) and rock musician Michael Monasterio.[4][5] Her parents were both teenagers when she was born. Chastain is reluctant to publicly discuss her family background. She was estranged from Monasterio, who died in 2013, and has stated that no father is listed on her birth certificate.[4][5] Chastain has two sisters and two brothers. Her younger sister, Juliet, committed suicide in 2003 following years of drug addiction.[6] Chastain was raised in Sacramento by her mother and stepfather, Michael Hastey, a firefighter.[2][7] Her family struggled financially.[8] Chastain has said that her stepfather was the first person to make her feel secure.[5] She shares a close bond with her maternal grandmother, Marilyn, and credits her as someone who "always believed in me".[7][9]
The Juilliard School in New York City, where Chastain studied acting
Chastain developed an interest in acting at age seven, after her grandmother took her to a production of Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat.[2] She would regularly put on amateur shows with other children, and considered herself to be their artistic director.[7] As a student at the El Camino Fundamental High School in Sacramento, Chastain struggled academically.[4][10] She was a loner and considered herself a misfit in school, eventually finding an outlet in the performing arts.[11] She has described how she used to miss school to read Shakespeare,[12] whose plays she became enamored with after attending the Oregon Shakespeare Festival with her classmates.[13] With too many absences during her senior year in school, Chastain did not qualify for graduation, but later obtained an adult diploma.[10] She later attended Sacramento City College from 1996 to 1997, during which she was a member of the institution's debate team.[14] Describing her early childhood, she recalled:
I [grew up] with a single mother who worked very hard to put food on our table. We did not have money. There were many nights when we had to go to sleep without eating. It was a very difficult upbringing. Things weren't easy for me growing up.[15]
In 1998, Chastain finished her education at the American Academy of Dramatic Arts and made her professional stage debut as Juliet in a production of Romeo and Juliet staged by TheatreWorks, a company in the San Francisco Bay Area.[16][17][18] The production led her to audition for the Juilliard School in New York City, where she was soon accepted and granted a scholarship funded by actor Robin Williams.[7][10] In her first year at the school, Chastain suffered from anxiety and was worried about being dropped from the program, spending most of her time reading and watching films.[7][18] She later remarked that her participation in a successful production of The Seagull during her second year helped build her confidence.[18] She graduated from the school with a Bachelor of Fine Arts degree in 2003.[18]
Career
2004–2010: Early work
Shortly before graduating from Juilliard, Chastain attended an event for final-year students in Los Angeles, where she was signed to a talent holding deal by the television producer John Wells.[19] She relocated to Los Angeles and started auditioning for jobs.[19] She initially found the process difficult, which she believed was due to other people finding her difficult to categorize as a redhead with an unconventional look.[20] In her television debut, The WB network's 2004 pilot remake of the 1960s gothic soap opera Dark Shadows, she was cast as Carolyn Stoddard.[21] The pilot was directed by P. J. Hogan, but the series was never picked up for broadcast.[21] Later that year, she appeared as a guest performer on the medical drama series ER playing a woman she described as "psychotic", which led to her getting more unusual parts such as accident victims or characters with mental illness.[19][20] She went on to appear in such roles in a few other television series from 2004 to 2007, including Veronica Mars (2004), Close to Home (2006), Blackbeard (2006), and Law & Order: Trial by Jury (2005–06).[22]
In 2004, Chastain took on the role of Anya, a virtuous young woman, in a Williamstown Theatre Festival production of Anton Chekhov's play The Cherry Orchard in Massachusetts, starring with Michelle Williams.[23] Also that year, she worked with Playwrights Horizons on a production of Richard Nelson's Rodney's Wife as the daughter of a troubled middle-aged film actor. Her performance was not well received by the critic Ben Brantley of The New York Times, who thought that she "somehow seems to keep losing color as the evening progresses".[24] While working on the play, she was recommended by Nelson to Al Pacino, who was looking for an actress to star in his production of Oscar Wilde's tragedy Salome.[19] The play tells the tragic story of its titular character's sexual exploration. In the play, Salome is a 16-year-old, but Chastain, aged 29 then, was cast for the part.[25] The play was staged in 2006 at the Wadsworth Theatre in Los Angeles, and Chastain later remarked that it helped bring her to the attention of several casting directors.[25][26] Writing for Variety, the critic Steven Oxman criticized her portrayal in the play: "Chastain is so ill-at-ease with Salome, not quite certain whether she's a capable seductress or a whiny, wealthy brat; she doesn't flesh out either choice".[26]
In 2010, Chastain starred in John Madden's dramatic thriller The Debt, portraying a young Mossad agent sent to East Berlin in the 1960s to capture a former Nazi doctor who carried out medical experiments in concentration camps.[35] She shared her role with Helen Mirren, with the two actresses portraying the character at different phases of her life.[35] They worked together before filming to perfect the voice and mannerisms of the character and make them consistent. Chastain took classes in German and Krav Maga, and studied books about the Nazi doctor Josef Mengele and Mossad history.[35] William Thomas of Empire termed the film a "smart, tense, well-acted thriller", and noted that Chastain "pulses with strength and vulnerability" in her part.[36] She also appeared as Mary Debenham in an episode of the British television series Agatha Christie's Poirot, based on Agatha Christie's 1934 novel Murder on the Orient Express.[37]
After struggling for a breakthrough in film, Chastain had six releases in 2011 and received wide recognition for several of them.[19][38] The first of the roles was as the wife of Michael Shannon's character in Jeff Nichols' Take Shelter, a drama about a troubled father who tries to protect his family from what he believes is an impending storm. The film was screened at the 2011 Sundance Film Festival, and critic Tim Robey of The Daily Telegraph noted how much Chastain's supporting part aided the narrative.[39] In Coriolanus, an adaptation of the Shakespeareantragedy from actor-director Ralph Fiennes, she played Virgilia.[40] Her next role was opposite Brad Pitt, as the loving mother of three children in Terrence Malick's experimental drama The Tree of Life, which she had filmed in 2008.[41][42] Chastain signed on to the film without receiving a traditional screenplay from Malick, and she improvised several scenes and dialogues with Pitt.[43] She considered her part to be "the embodiment of grace and the spirit world"; in preparation, she practiced meditation, studied paintings of the Madonna, and read poems by Thomas Aquinas.[43] The film premiered at the 2011 Cannes Film Festival to a polarized reception from the audience, though it was praised by critics and won the Palme d'Or.[44] The critic Justin Chang termed the film a "hymn to the glory of creation, an exploratory, often mystifying [...] poem" and credited Chastain for playing her part with "heartrending vulnerability".[45]
A short part Chastain had filmed for Terrence Malick's To the Wonder (2012) was edited out of the final film, and due to scheduling conflicts, she dropped out of the action films Oblivion and Iron Man 3 (both 2013).[63] She instead made her Broadway debut in a revival of the 1947 play The Heiress, playing the role of Catherine Sloper, a naïve young girl who transforms into a powerful woman.[64] Chastain was reluctant to take the role, fearing the anxiety she had faced during her early stage performances.[64] She ultimately agreed after finding a connection to Sloper, explaining: "she's painfully uncomfortable and I used to be that".[64] The production was staged at the Walter Kerr Theatre from November 2012 to February 2013.[65]Ben Brantley of The New York Times was disappointed in Chastain's performance, writing that she was "oversignaling the thoughts within" and that her delivery of dialogue was sometimes flat.[65]The Heiress emerged as a sleeper hit at the box office.[66]
Kathryn Bigelow's thriller Zero Dark Thirty was Chastain's final film release of 2012. It is a partly fictionalized account of the nearly decade-long manhunt for Al-Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden after the September 11 attacks in 2001. She played Maya Harris, a CIA intelligence analyst who helps kill bin Laden. Chastain was unable to meet the intelligence analyst on whom her character was based, so she relied on the research done by the film's screenwriter Mark Boal.[67] The difficult subject matter made it unpleasant for her to film; she suffered from depression during production, and once walked off the set in tears because she was unable to continue.[67]Zero Dark Thirty was critically acclaimed, albeit controversial for its scenes of torture that were shown providing useful intelligence in the search for bin Laden.[68][69] Roger Ebert took note of Chastain's versatility, and likened her ability and range to that of Meryl Streep.[70]Peter Travers of Rolling Stone wrote, "Chastain is a marvel. She plays Maya like a gathering storm in an indelible, implosive performance that cuts so deep we can feel her nerve endings."[71] She won the Golden Globe Award for Best Actress in a Drama and received Academy, BAFTA and SAG nominations for Best Actress.[7][72]
Chastain took on the lead role of a musician who is forced to care for her boyfriend's troubled nieces in the horror film Mama (2013), directed by Andy Muschietti. She was drawn to the idea of playing a woman drastically different from the "perfect mother" roles she had previously played, and she based her character's look on the singer Alice Glass.[21] The critic Richard Roeper considered her performance to be proof of her being one of the finest actors of her generation.[73] During the film's opening weekend in North America, Chastain became the first performer in fifteen years to have leading roles in the top two films (Mama and Zero Dark Thirty) at the box office.[74] She then starred as the titular character of a depressed woman who separates from her husband (played by James McAvoy) following a tragic incident in the drama The Disappearance of Eleanor Rigby (2013), which she also produced.[75] The writer-director Ned Benson initially wrote the story from the perspective of Rigby's husband, then wrote a separate version from Rigby's perspective at the insistence of Chastain.[76] Three versions of the film— Him, Her, and Them— were released.[76][77] It did not find a wide audience,[78] but the critic A. O. Scott praised Chastain for "short-circuit[ing] conventional distinctions between tough and vulnerable, showing exquisite control even when her character is losing it, and keeping her balance even when the movie pitches and rolls toward melodrama".[79]
Chastain appeared in three films in 2014. She played the titular character in Miss Julie, a film adaptation of August Strindberg's 1888 play of the same name, from director Liv Ullmann.[80] It tells the tragic tale of a sexually repressed Anglo-Irish aristocrat who wishes to sleep with her father's valet (Colin Farrell).[81] She was drawn to Ullmann's feminist take on the subject.[82] The film only received a limited theatrical release.[83] While filming Miss Julie in Ireland, she received the script for Christopher Nolan's science fiction film Interstellar (2014).[84] With a budget of $165million, the high-profile production, co-starring Matthew McConaughey and Anne Hathaway, was filmed mostly using IMAX cameras.[85][86] Chastain played the adult daughter of McConaughey's character; she was drawn to the project for the emotional heft she found in the father-daughter pair.[87] Drew McWeeny of HitFix took note of how much Chastain had stood out in her supporting role.[88]Interstellar grossed over $701million worldwide to rank as her highest-grossing live-action film to date.[48][85]
In her final release of 2014, Chastain starred in the J. C. Chandor-directed crime drama A Most Violent Year. Set in New York City in 1981, the year in which the city had the highest crime rate, the film tells the story of a heating-oil company owner (Oscar Isaac) and his ruthless wife (Chastain).[89] In preparation, she researched the period and worked with a dialect coach to speak in a Brooklyn accent.[90] She collaborated with the film's costume designer to work on her character's wardrobe, and contacted Armani which provided her with clothing of the period.[90]Mark Kermode of The Observer found Chastain to be "terrific" in a part inspired by Lady Macbeth's character, and Mick LaSalle of the San Francisco Chronicle described her portrayal as "the embodiment of a nouveau riche New York woman of the era".[91][92] She received a Golden Globe for Best Supporting Actress nomination for it.[93] For her work in 2014, the Broadcast Film Critics Association honored Chastain with a special achievement award.[94]
In 2015, Chastain took on the part of a commander in Ridley Scott's science fiction film The Martian. Starring Matt Damon as a botanist who is stranded on Mars by a team of astronauts commanded by Chastain's character, the film is based on Andy Weir's novel of the same name. Chastain met with astronauts at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory and the Johnson Space Center, and modeled her role on Tracy Caldwell Dyson, with whom she spent time in Houston.[95]The Martian became her second film to gross over $600million in two consecutive years.[48][96] Chastain next starred as a woman who plots with her brother (Tom Hiddleston) to terrorize his new bride (Mia Wasikowska) in Guillermo del Toro's gothic romanceCrimson Peak. She approached the villainous part with empathy, and in preparation read graveyard poetry and watched the films Rebecca (1940) and What Ever Happened to Baby Jane? (1962).[95] Del Toro cast Chastain to lend accessibility to a part he considered "psychopathic", but Peter Debruge of Variety found her "alarmingly miscast" and criticized her for failing to effectively convey her character's insecurity and ruthlessness.[95][97] Conversely, David Sims of Slate praised her for portraying her character's "jealous intensity to the hilt".[98]
After playing a series of intense roles, Chastain actively looked for a light-hearted part.[99] She found it in the ensemble fantasy film The Huntsman: Winter's War (2016), which served as both a sequel and a prequel to the 2012 film Snow White and the Huntsman. She was drawn to the idea of playing a warrior whose abilities were on par with those of the male lead, but the film flopped both critically and commercially.[99][100] Chastain next starred as the titular character, a lobbyist, in the political thriller Miss Sloane, which reunited her with John Madden.[99][101] She read the novel Capitol Punishment by disgraced former lobbyist Jack Abramoff to research the practice of lobbying in America, and met with female lobbyists to study their mannerisms and sense of style.[102] Hailing her as "one of the best actresses on the planet", Peter Travers commended Chastain for successfully drawing the audience into Sloane's life, and Justin Chang termed her performance "a tour de force of rhetorical precision and tightly coiled emotional intensity".[103][104] She received a Golden Globe nomination for Best Actress in a Drama.[105] Also in 2016, Chastain launched the production company Freckle Films, headed by a team of female executives.[99][106]
Chastain portrayed Molly Bloom, a former skier who ran a high-profile gambling operation that led to her arrest by the FBI, in Aaron Sorkin's directorial debut, Molly's Game (2017). She took the part due to her desire to work with Sorkin, whose writing she admired.[113] Instead of relying on Bloom's public persona, she met Bloom personally to explore her character's flaws and vulnerabilities. She also researched the world of underground poker and interviewed some of Bloom's customers.[113] Peter Debruge hailed her role as "one of the screen's great female parts", and credited its success to both Sorkin's script and Chastain's "stratospheric talent."[114] She received her fifth Golden Globe nomination for it.[115] In 2018, she hosted an episode of the television sketch comedy show Saturday Night Live and voiced the virtual reality production Spheres: Songs of Spacetime.[116][117] She had filmed a part in Xavier Dolan's ensemble drama The Death & Life of John F. Donovan, but her scenes were deleted from the final cut as Dolan found her role incompatible to the story.[118]
In the superhero film Dark Phoenix (2019), which marked the twelfth installment in the X-Men series, Chastain took on the role of an evil alien due to its focus on female characters.[119]Peter Bradshaw of The Guardian considered it to be "a waste of her talents", and the film registered poor box office returns.[120][121] She reteamed with Andy Muschietti in It Chapter Two, the sequel to his 2017 horror film It, based on Stephen King's novel. She played the adult Beverly Marsh (a woman in an abusive marriage), sharing the role with Sophia Lillis. Filming proved challenging for Chastain, as Muschietti preferred the usage of practical effects to computer-generated imagery; one particular scene required her to be covered in 4,500 US gallons (17,000 litres) of fake blood.[122][123] The film received favorable reviews, with Charlotte O'Sullivan of the Evening Standard finding Chastain to be "suitably sad and sepulchral" in her role.[124][125] It grossed over $470 million worldwide.[126]
Under Freckle Films, Chastain produced and starred in the action film Ava (2020), written and initially set to be directed by Matthew Newton, who has been accused of domestic violence. Following backlash against her for agreeing to work with him, Newton was replaced with Tate Taylor.[127][128] Boyd van Hoeij of The Hollywood Reporter bemoaned that Chastain's talents as an action star had been wasted in an underwhelming film.[129] Released theatrically during the COVID-19 pandemic, it performed poorly at the box office but gained success on video on demand.[130]
2021–present: Awards success and television
Andrew Garfield and Chastain starred as the televangelists Jim and Tammy Faye Bakker in the biopic The Eyes of Tammy Faye (2021). She acquired the rights to Faye's life in 2012, and produced the film under her company Freckle Films.[131] To look like Bakker, Chastain wore prosthetic makeup which took 4–7 hours to apply.[132] The role also required her to sing, which she has said made her nervous.[133] She worked with the music producer Dave Cobb to record seven songs for the film's soundtrack.[131] David Fear of Rolling Stone found Chastain to be the "only reason to see this curiously tepid biopic" and praised her for rising above the script to humanize Bakker.[134]Kevin Maher of The Times considered it to be a "riveting, unleashed and award-worthy performance" and compared it to Joaquin Phoenix's performance in Joker (2019).[135] She won the Academy Award for Best Actress, Critics Choice Award and SAG Award, in addition to a Golden Globe nomination.[136][137]
For The 355 (2022), a female-led spy film, Chastain and her team of female co-stars pitched the idea to prospective buyers at the 2018 Cannes Film Festival, where it was picked up by Universal Pictures.[145] Critics dismissed the film as generic and unremarkable, and it failed commercially.[146][147] Chastain then took on a brief role as Maryanne Trump in James Gray's period film Armageddon Time.[148] In The Good Nurse, she played night nurse Amy Loughren who discovers that her co-worker Charles Cullen (played by Eddie Redmayne) is a serial killer.[149] She worked closely with Loughren and attended nursing school to prepare for the part.[150] Kate Erbland of IndieWire found hers to be "an effective performance in a very quiet package".[151]
Chastain executive produced the Showtime biographical miniseries George & Tammy, in which she played the country singer Tammy Wynette opposite Michael Shannon's George Jones.[152][153] In preparation, Chastain and Shannon trained with a vocal coach to sing several of their character's songs. She also lost weight to play Wynette toward the end of her life.[154] Emma Fraser of The Playlist was appreciate of the chemistry between the actors, and took note of the "fragility and toughness" in Chastain's portrayal.[155] The series had strong viewership across various platforms.[156] She won a SAG Award, received another Golden Globe nomination, and earned her first nomination for a Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Lead Actress in a Limited Series.[157][158][159]
Chastain returned to Broadway theater, playing Nora Helmer, an unhappy housewife, in Jamie Lloyd's 2023 revival of Henrik Ibsen's play A Doll's House, which ran for 16 weeks at the Hudson Theatre.[160] Initially set for West End theater in 2020, the production was canceled due to the COVID-19 pandemic, and later relocated to New York on Chastain's insistence.[161][162] The production was extended one week due to the strong box office sales of the preview performances.[163] Gloria Oladipo of The Guardian deemed Chastain's performance "enthralling" and "captivating", adding that "a fuller, infinite portrait is painted of the long-time heroine through Chastain’s work".[164] She won the Drama Desk Award for Outstanding Lead Performance in a Play and received a nomination for the Tony Award for Best Actress in a Play.[165][166] Chastain played a recovering alcoholic in Michel Franco's independent drama film Memory, co-starring Peter Sarsgaard.[167] She was pleased to take on the low-profile project and shopped at Target herself for her character's clothes.[168] Debruge noted that Chastain's "never appeared more vulnerable on-screen" playing a morally divisive character.[169]
In 2024, Chastain produced and starred alongside Anne Hathaway in Mothers' Instinct, a remake of the Belgian psychological thriller of the same name.[170] As a close friend of Hathaway, she found it challenging to play a character that's antagonistic towards Hathaway's.[171] She will next reteam with Franco in the ensemble drama Dreams and will executive produce and star in the Apple TV+ miniseries The Savant, based on the true story of an investigator who infiltrates online hate groups.[172][173] Chastain will also reunite with Pacino in Lear Rex, an adaptation of Shakespeare's King Lear, playing Goneril.[174]
Chastain identifies as a feminist, and has often spoken out against the discrimination faced by women and minorities in Hollywood.[7][175][176][177] She penned an essay on gender imbalance in the industry for a December 2015 issue of The Hollywood Reporter.[178] At the 2017 Cannes Film Festival, where she served as a jury member, Chastain bemoaned the passive portrayal of women in most films.[179][180] She has complained about a lack of female film critics, which she believes hinders a gender-neutral perspective on film.[180] She advocates for greater gender balance on sets, including more representation of women on film crews and in positions of power.[181] On social media, Chastain aims to "amplify the voices" of victims of sexual harassment in the industry.[182] In 2018, she collaborated with 300 women in Hollywood to set up the Time's Up initiative to protect women from harassment and discrimination.[183] In the same year, she appeared alongside several actresses in This Changes Everything, a documentary about the poor representation of women in Hollywood films.[184] She is also a LGBT rights activist. Most notably, when she had won the Academy Award for Best Actress in 2022, she voiced her support for the community she loved, and called out bigoted legislation against them.[185][186][187]
Chastain is a vocal advocate for equal pay in the workplace, and turns down offers of work whose salaries she finds unfair.[7][188] She spoke out in support of actress Michelle Williams, who was paid less than her co-star Mark Wahlberg for the 2017 film All the Money in the World, a gesture which Williams said led to greater awareness of the issue and a donation worth $2 million to the Time's Up Legal Defense Fund.[189] In 2013, Chastain lent her support to the Got Your 6 campaign, to help empower veterans of the United States Army, and in 2016, she became an advisory-board member to the organization We Do It Together, which produces films and television shows to promote women empowerment.[190][191] In 2017, she featured alongside several Hollywood celebrities in a theatrical production of The Children's Monologues, in which she performed a monolog as a thirteen-year-old girl who is raped by her uncle. The event raised funds for Dramatic Need, a charity that helps African children pursue a career in the arts.[192] In 2020, Chastain became an investor in a Los Angeles-based franchise for the National Women's Soccer League.[193] The new team has since been named Angel City FC.[194]
Chastain supports charitable organizations that promote mental health, and is involved with the nonprofit organization To Write Love on Her Arms.[195] Teased as a child for having red hair and freckles, she takes a stand against body-shaming and bullying.[11] Chastain has campaigned for access to affordable reproductive health care for women, and in 2017, Variety honored her for her work with Planned Parenthood.[196] In response to abortion bans in certain American states, she joined several actors in refusing to work in those regions.[197]
Describing Chastain's off-screen persona, Roy Porter of InStyle magazine wrote in 2015 that "she's an adult, which isn't always a given in Hollywood. Unconsciously candid with her answers, she retains a sense of perspective uncommon among her peers, and has real opinions"; Porter also credited her for being the rare actress who is "all about the craft".[42] Evgenia Peretz, an editor at Vanity Fair, finds Chastain "the most sensitive and empathetic actor" she has interviewed.[202]
Chastain specializes in portraying emotionally grueling roles and is drawn to parts of strong but flawed women.[11][203][204] The journalist Sanjiv Bhattacharya has identified a theme of characters who "subvert gender expectations in some way".[188] David Ehrlich of IndieWire credits her for being the sole American actress to consistently play roles that "champion feminist ideals".[205] She believes in extensive preparations for a role: "[I] fill myself up with as much history of the character as I can."[206] The film critics Roger Ebert and Richard Roeper have praised Chastain's versatility,[70][73] and W magazine credits her for avoiding typecasting.[9]
Guillermo del Toro, who directed Chastain in Crimson Peak, believes that she is "interested in being chameleonic", and that she brings authenticity even to bizarre situations.[207] Sophie Heawood of The Guardian believes that Chastain's ability to bring very little ego to her roles renders her unrecognisable to the audience.[7] Sarah Karmali of Harper's Bazaar opines that "she goes for total immersion, sinking so deep into character that her face seems to change shape with each one".[204] Lea Goldman of Marie Claire has compared her craft to that of Meryl Streep and Cate Blanchett, and writes that she values her craft over her looks.[12] Michel Franco, who directed her in Memory, called Chastain "the best actress in the world".[208] Describing her film career in 2017, Ben Dickinson of Elle wrote:
With her often haunted-looking eyes, pale complexion, and gorgeous red mane [...] she can project everything from icy hauteur (The Martian, Miss Sloane) to loving warmth (The Tree of Life, The Zookeeper's Wife) or an unstable equilibrium and high intelligence in between (Zero Dark Thirty and A Most Violent Year).[209]
The journalist Tom Shone describes Chastain as being "excessively luscious [with] pale Botticelli features wrapped around a bone structure that has a touch of the masculine, right down to the cleft in her chin."[210] She was named the sexiest vegetarian actress in a poll conducted by PETA in 2012.[211] From 2012 to 2014, she was featured in AskMen's listing of the most desirable women,[212] and in 2015, Glamour magazine ranked her as one of the best-dressed women.[213]
Time magazine named Chastain one of the 100 most influential people in the world in 2012.[214] That same year, she was invited to join the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, and she endorsed an Yves Saint Laurent fragrance called Manifesto.[215][216] In 2015, she became the global ambassador for the Swiss jewelry and watchmaking company Piaget, and in 2017, she was made the face of Ralph Lauren's fragrance campaign, named Woman.[217][218] For the latter, she led an initiative called Lead Like A Woman, and featured in a short film named Leading with Intensity (2019) made by an all-female cast and crew.[219]
Personal life
Despite significant media attention, Chastain remains guarded about her personal life, and chooses not to attend red carpet events with a partner.[220][203] She considers herself to be a "shy" person, and in 2011 expressed a preference for domestic routines like dog-walking and playing ukulele over partying.[221] Chastain has cited the actress Isabelle Huppert as an influence, for managing a family, while also playing "out-there roles" on screen.[222]
In the 2000s, Chastain was in a long-term relationship with writer-director Ned Benson that ended in 2010.[225] In 2012, she began dating Gian Luca Passi de Preposulo, an Italian count of the Passi de Preposulo noble family, who is an executive for the fashion brand Moncler.[7][203] On June 10, 2017, Chastain married Preposulo at his family's estate in Carbonera, Italy.[226] In 2018, the couple had a daughter named Giulietta Passi Chastain through surrogacy.[227][228] They later had a son named Augustus Passi.[138] They reside in New York City.[229][230]
Jessica Phyllis Lange is an American actress. Known for her roles on stage and screen she has received numerous accolades and is one of the few performers to achieve the Triple Crown of Acting. Lange has received two Academy Awards, three Primetime Emmy Awards, five Golden Globe Awards, and a Tony Award as well as nominations for a BAFTA Award and a Olivier Award.
Jessica Marie Alba is an American actress, businesswoman, and entrepreneur. She began her acting career at age 13 in Camp Nowhere (1994), followed up by The Secret World of Alex Mack (1994), and rose to prominence at age 19 as the lead actress of the television series Dark Angel (2000–2002), for which she received a Golden Globe nomination.
Anne Jacqueline Hathaway is an American actress. Her accolades include an Academy Award, a British Academy Film Award, a Golden Globe Award, and a Primetime Emmy Award. Her films have grossed over $6.8 billion worldwide, and she appeared on the Forbes Celebrity 100 list in 2009. She was among the world's highest-paid actresses in 2015.
Jessica Claire Timberlake is an American actress. Biel began her career as a vocalist appearing in musical productions until she was cast as Mary Camden in the family drama series 7th Heaven (1996–2006), in which she achieved recognition.
Melissa Ann McCarthy is an American actress, screenwriter, and producer. She is the recipient of numerous accolades, including two Primetime Emmy Awards, and nominations for two Academy Awards and two Golden Globe Awards. McCarthy was named by Time as one of the 100 most influential people in the world in 2016, and she has been featured multiple times in annual rankings of the highest-paid actresses in the world. In 2020, The New York Times ranked her #22 in its list of the 25 Greatest Actors of the 21st Century.
Emily Jean "Emma" Stone is an American actress and producer. Her accolades include two Academy Awards, two British Academy Film Awards, and two Golden Globe Awards. In 2017, she was the world's highest-paid actress and named by Time magazine as one of the 100 most influential people in the world.
Gugulethu Sophia Mbatha-Raw is an English actress. She began acting at the National Youth Music Theatre and the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art, and gained acclaim for her roles as Juliet in Romeo and Juliet and Octavia in Anthony and Cleopatra in 2005 at the Royal Exchange Theatre, Manchester. She made her West End and Broadway debut portraying Ophelia in Hamlet in 2009. For her role as the titular character in Jessica Swale's 2015 play Nell Gwynn, she received an Evening Standard Theatre Award for Best Actress nomination.
Octavia Lenora Spencer is an American actress. She is the recipient of several accolades, including an Academy Award, a British Academy Film Award, and a Golden Globe Award, in addition to a nomination for a Primetime Emmy Award.
Jennifer Shrader Lawrence is an American actress and producer. Lawrence is known for starring in both action film franchises and independent dramas, and her films have grossed over $6 billion worldwide. The world's highest-paid actress in 2015 and 2016, she appeared in Time's 100 most influential people in the world list in 2013 and the Forbes Celebrity 100 list from 2013 to 2016.
Ann Dowd is an American actress. She has appeared in numerous films, including Green Card (1990), Lorenzo's Oil (1992), Philadelphia (1993), Garden State (2004), The Manchurian Candidate (2004), Marley & Me (2008), Compliance (2012), Side Effects (2013), St. Vincent (2014), Captain Fantastic (2016), Hereditary (2018), and Mass (2021). For Compliance, she won the National Board of Review Award for Best Supporting Actress. For Mass, she earned nominations for a British Academy Film Award and a Critics' Choice Award.
Krysten Alyce Ritter is an American actress. After an early modeling stint, she appeared on the UPN noir mystery series Veronica Mars (2005–2006) and the CW comedy drama series Gilmore Girls (2006–2007). Her breakthrough role was Jane Margolis on the AMC drama series Breaking Bad (2009–2010), a character she reprises in its spinoff film El Camino (2019). She headlined the ABC sitcom Don't Trust the B---- in Apartment 23 (2012–2013) before playing the title character on the superhero series Jessica Jones (2015–2019) and the miniseries The Defenders (2017), both set in the Marvel Cinematic Universe and for Netflix. She appears on the Max miniseries Love & Death (2023).
Sophie Belinda Turner is an English actress. She made her acting debut as Sansa Stark in the HBO epic fantasy television series Game of Thrones (2011–2019), for which she received an Emmy Award nomination for Outstanding Supporting Actress in a Drama Series in 2019.
Lupita Amondi Nyong'o is an actress who has received various accolades, including an Academy Award and a Daytime Emmy Award, as well as nominations for two British Academy Film Awards, a Golden Globe Award and a Tony Award.
Molly's Game is a 2017 American biographical film written and directed by Aaron Sorkin, based on the 2014 memoir by Molly Bloom. It stars Jessica Chastain, Idris Elba, Kevin Costner, Michael Cera, Jeremy Strong, Chris O'Dowd, Joe Keery, Brian D'Arcy James, and Bill Camp.
Miss Sloane is a 2016 American political thriller film directed by John Madden and written by Jonathan Perera. The film stars Jessica Chastain, Mark Strong, Gugu Mbatha-Raw, Michael Stuhlbarg, Alison Pill, Jake Lacy, John Lithgow, and Sam Waterston. The film follows Elizabeth Sloane, a fierce lobbyist, who fights in an attempt to pass gun control legislation.
The Eyes of Tammy Faye is a 2021 American biographical drama film directed by Michael Showalter from a screenplay by Abe Sylvia, based on the 2000 documentary of the same name by Fenton Bailey and Randy Barbato of World of Wonder. The film tells the story of Tammy Faye Bakker, from her humble beginnings growing up in International Falls, Minnesota, through the rise and fall of her televangelism career and marriage to Jim Bakker. Cherry Jones and Vincent D'Onofrio also star. The film is produced by Chastain's production company, Freckle Films.
Freckle Films is an American film and television production company. It was founded by Jessica Chastain in 2016. The company's projects include the biopics The Eyes of Tammy Faye (2021) and George & Tammy (2022), both starring Chastain.
George & Tammy is an American biographical drama miniseries created by Abe Sylvia and directed by John Hillcoat, which premiered on Paramount Network, Showtime and CMT on December 4, 2022, with Showtime as its primary network. It stars Jessica Chastain and Michael Shannon as country musicians Tammy Wynette and George Jones, chronicling their tumultuous relationship and intertwined careers.
1 2 Oxman, Steven (April 30, 2006). "Review: 'Salome'". Variety. Archived from the original on May 5, 2016. Retrieved April 24, 2016.
↑ Catsoulis, Jeanette (October 28, 2010). "Searching for Stability". The New York Times. Archived from the original on February 25, 2016. Retrieved April 30, 2016.
↑ Young, Deborah (November 6, 2012). "Tar: Rome Review". The Hollywood Reporter. Archived from the original on August 19, 2016. Retrieved February 27, 2022.
↑ Hoeij, Boyd Van (August 23, 2020). "'Ava': Film Review". The Hollywood Reporter. Archived from the original on October 26, 2020. Retrieved August 23, 2020.
1 2 White, Terri (January 16, 2022). "Jessica Chastain: 'I have a rebellious streak'". The Times. Archived from the original on January 16, 2022. Retrieved January 22, 2022. She is deeply private about her own family life — her husband, Gian Luca Passi de Preposulo, an Italian count who works as a fashion executive, and their two young daughters.
This page is based on this Wikipedia article Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply. Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.
