CinemaStarring: Jessica Chastain and her best films

American actress
Jessica Chastain has made a splash in Hollywood.
In one year, she appeared in seven successful films and therefore became one of the most prolific aspiring stars in recent years. She literally went from underground actress to star overnight, working with Brad Pitt, appearing at the Cannes Film Festival and winning numerous awards. Jessica was born in Sacramento, California on March 24, 1977. She graduated from the prestigious JulieArt School in New York and then starred in the television series Veronica Mars and Law & Order: Trial by Jury. For her debut role in the 2008 drama Jolene, she was awarded the Best Actress Award at the Seattle Film Festival. But she began her incredible rise to stardom in 2010 by starring in the tense drama The Tree of Life, directed by Terence Malick, famous for his unusual style. For her role as a caring mother, Jessica received no less than 11 awards, but there is no time to celebrate. She was already waiting for work in the following films. She played young society lady Celia Foote in The Help. And the tough government agent Rachel Singer in the thriller Reckoning. Chastain shared the screen with Helen Mirren as the elderly Rachel.

Still from the film Reckoning.

According to the legendary actress, Rachel made her job much easier:

Helen Mirren : She was able to give a wonderful, complex, nuanced performance in relation to her character's dual feelings and gave me a starting point, or even a basis, for creating my character.

Al Pacino was so impressed by what he saw in Chastain that he cast her in his drama Wilde's Salome. Other successful roles awaited her in the psychological drama “Shelter”, paired with Michael Shannon, and in the crime film “Fields”, paired with Sam Worthington. As if trying to break the record for the number of films shot in a year, Chastain's filmography is expanding at tremendous speed. As a result, she also starred in the Shakespearean tragedy “Coriolanus” along with Vanessa Redgrave, Gerard Butler and Ralph Fiennes.

Here's how Jessica remembers her work in Coriolanus: “When I was in college, Ralph Fiennes came to us and spoke to the students. The thought that seven years later I would be working with him seemed incredibly amazing to me. It was scary, but it was great that everyone on the set helped me while I was working, and I wasn’t scared.”

The thought that she had experienced such an incredible year helped Jessica not to miss another opportunity and in 2012 she starred in the film “The Drunkest County in the World” with Tom Hardy and Shia LaBeouf, and also finished filming in the film “Zero Dark Thirty.” - a historical drama about the hunt for Osama Bin Laden. Naturally, this topic caused controversy, dividing the opinions of fans and critics.

Chastain as dancer Maggie Beaufort in The Drunkest County in the World.

Perhaps to move away from the heavy film, Chastain took on the role of voicing the jaguar Jiu in the animated film Madagascar 3. 2013 began with the horror film “Mom” in which the actress played a woman raising two traumatized children. Fortunately, the children were not injured at all during filming. According to Jessica, she enjoys working with children more than adults.

At the Golden Globe Awards, Chastain defied critics for Zero Dark Thirty and took home the award for Best Actress in a Drama. On the red carpet before the ceremony, posing for photographers in a luxurious evening dress, she admitted that, of course, she thought about awards and strived for this, like many other actors and actresses. In addition, Chastain looks no worse in the photo than on the screen , which is why she often appears on the covers of glossy publications. In the same year, Jessica starred in the duology “The Disappearance of Eleanor Rigby,” a drama about the difficult relationship between spouses during a crisis period in their family life, where James McAvoy became the actress’s partner on the set.

2014 was marked for the actress with the release of four films at once, this is the final part of the duology “The Disappearance of Eleanor Rigby”, “Mistress Julia”, “A Most Cruel Year” and the science-fiction film from Christopher Nolan “ Interstellar ”. The latter immediately became the box office leader in its segment and collected an impressive box office, taking an honorable 9th place in the ranking of the Top 250 best films in cinema history.

Jessica in the movie Interstellar.

In 2020, several more films with the participation of the actress will be released, which are replete with genre diversity and will be a good addition to Jessica Chastain’s filmography. This is the fantasy "The Martian" with Kate Mara and Matt Damon; fantasy “The Hunter” with Chris Hemsworth and Charlize Theron; horror "Crimson Peak" with Charlie Hunnam; biographical film “Blonde” and many others.

Biography of Jessica Chastain

Jessica Chastain was born on March 24, 1977 in Socramento, USA. Her family was large, Jessica was the eldest of the children. Her parents were simple people: her father worked as a fireman, and her mother was a cook. The mother greatly influenced her daughter’s eating behavior; she was a vegan and instilled in her daughter a reasonable attitude towards consumption.

From childhood, her parents taught the girl how to use money correctly. Once a year she was given a certain amount, which she had to spend on her needs. This taught Chastain how to properly allocate money and value it.

At the age of 7, the girl attended a children's musical and literally became ill with the stage. After that, she began to dream of becoming an actress. A new passion brought the girl to a drama club, and at the age of 10 she also became interested in dancing. During her school years, the future actress was not a very beautiful child: her short red hair made her look like a boy, but she had excellent movement and a sense of rhythm. Jessica soon began performing on stage, and at the age of 13 she began taking acting classes. She was not afraid to look for herself and discover new areas of activity.

The girl decided to enter the Juilliard School after school and passed the entrance exams with honor. But the actress’s family lived very modestly; the parents did not have money to pay for their daughter’s education. The future artist was helped by Juilliard School graduate Robin Williams. He paid for Chastain's education until 2003. This year, Jessica completed her education and immediately went looking for work. She did not want to burden her parents anymore and the girl agreed to any job in her specialty. In one of the television programs she had to portray a corpse. She also worked as a presenter at children's parties.

Childhood and adolescence

The future actress was born on March 24, 1977 in Sacramento, the capital of California. Chastain is her mother Jerry's maiden name. Jessica keeps the name of her biological father a secret; it is only known that she was born when her parents were still minors. There is a version that the actress’s father may be rock musician Michael Monasterio, but she herself does not confirm this information. Jessica considers firefighter Michael Hastie to be her only beloved father, who became the official husband of Jerry Chastain and took care of Jess as his own daughter.

Jessica Chastain in childhood In addition to Jessica, there were four more children growing up in the family: two sisters and two brothers. There was not enough money, so the family often had to move in search of cheap housing. The mother spent from morning to evening in a vegan restaurant, where she worked as a cook, and caring for the kids lay mainly on the shoulders of the grandmother. It was she who managed to instill in Jessica an interest in art, from an early age she took her granddaughter to the theater and dreamed that her little red-haired darling would become an actress.

Jessica Chastain as a child with her grandmother At the age of 7, Jessica attended the musical “Joseph and the Amazing Dreamcoat.” The performance amazed her so much that she herself wanted to find herself in the epicenter of this magical action. The girl began studying in a choreographic studio, and at the age of thirteen she enrolled in a theater club.

Jessica Chastain fell ill with art from a young age. After graduating from primary school, Jessica entered the local city college, where she continued her studies in the drama studio. She played in student plays, appeared on stage as Juliet, and dreamed of studying theater at the famous Julliard School of the Arts.

Jessica Chastain studied at the famous Julliard School of the Arts. Having received her diploma, in 1999 she and her grandmother went to New York and, despite huge competition, successfully passed all the qualifying tests at Julliard. However, schooling turned out to be beyond her means, and only thanks to the Robin Williams scholarship, which Jess received as a child from a low-income family, the girl got the opportunity to become a student at this prestigious educational institution.

Movies

Jessica Chastain began making her first attempts at cinema in 2004 in television series. She can be seen in such famous projects as “Dark Shadows”, “Agatha Christie’s Poirot”, “ER”, “Law and Order” and many others. His debut on the big screen happened 4 years later in the social drama “Jolene”. The role of the main character brought the actress her first award at the Seattle International Film Festival.

"Jolene"

A breakthrough in the performer’s creative biography occurred in 2011. Jessica starred in seven films, and four of them were a huge success. According to Chastain, filming with Brad Pitt in the mystical drama “The Tree of Life” was an absolutely incredible experience. The drama about interracial relations “The Help” made a splash. For her role as Celia Foote in this film, Jessica Chastain was nominated for an Oscar and a Golden Globe.

"Tree of Life"

"Servant"

Another notable work of Chastain was her participation in the filming of the gangster drama “The Drunkest County in the World,” in which she appeared as a seductive dancer. Her on-screen partners were Shia LaBeouf and Tom Hardy.

"The drunkest county in the world"

In 2013, Jessica Chastain became a participant in the experimental project “The Disappearance of Eleanor Rigby,” which consisted of three films of the same name, in which what was happening was shown from different angles. In all three films, the actress played the role of Eleanor, and also acted as a producer of the project.

"The Disappearance of Eleanor Rigby"

In 2014, the performer's filmography was supplemented with the first big-budget film in the science fiction genre - the film "Interstellar" directed by Christopher Nolan. Preparations for filming took place in strict secrecy. Jessica played the daughter of the main character. The drama also stars Matthew McConaughey and Anne Hathaway.

"Interstellar"

Later, the actress appeared in the gothic melodrama Crimson Peak with Tom Hiddleston in the title role. She played the role of the main character's sister. Jessica also had the chance to collaborate with her grandmother’s favorite actor, Al Pacino, in the film adaptation of Oscar Wilde’s play “Salome.”

"Crimson Peak"

"Salome"

In 2020, the actress played the main role in the political thriller Miss Sloane. Critics admired the actress's performance; in addition, Jessica received a Golden Globe nomination for her role as Elizabeth Sloane.

"Miss Sloane"

The actress's character is a talented lobbyist who is hired to push bills through the government and manipulate public opinion. The plot of the film is built around a bill that restricts the freedom to purchase and own firearms in the United States. Elizabeth Sloan refuses to defend the gun lobby and moves to a rival company. This begins real hostility between former colleagues.

Fans attribute more roles to Chastain than she actually has, due to the fact that the actress is often confused with her colleague Bryce Dallas Howard. They are not very similar in parameters: Jessica’s height is 163 cm, Bryce is 170, Chasten’s weight is 50 kg, and their colleagues are 63 kg, but they adhere to a similar image and both wear long, bright red hair.

In 2020, the actress played the main role in the film “The Zookeeper's Wife.” The film is based on the book of the same name by Diane Ackerman.

"The Zookeeper's Wife"

The plot of the film is based on real events. The main characters of the film - the director of the Warsaw Zoo, Jan Żabinski (Johan Heldenberg) and his wife Antonina Żabinskaya (Jessica Chastain) - received the title of Righteous Among the Nations for the fact that during the occupation of Poland by the Third Reich, Jews who escaped from the Warsaw ghetto were hidden from the Nazis in empty cages for animals.

The actress also tried her hand at the Western genre and starred in the film “The Woman Walks Ahead.”

"The Woman Walks Ahead"

Another film of 2020 was the film “The Big Game”, in which Jessica played the role of Molly Bloom.

Actor career

In 2003, Jessica successfully graduated from Juilliard and began looking for a job. As often happens, few people took the young actress seriously, and the roles she was offered did little to match her creative ambitions. But the girl had a strong character and did not think of giving up. She worked as an animator, participated in various shows and did not lose hope of making her way to the big screen. She began her acting career in 2004 with episodic roles in TV series, and only four years later she starred for the first time in the full-screen film “Jolene” (2009). Jessica got the leading role of an orphan girl, for which she was nominated for a prestigious award at the Seattle Film Festival.

Jessica Chastain in the film “Jolene” Chastain’s next work in the film “The Boy in the Box” (2008) went almost unnoticed, but at that time the girl was lucky enough to work with Al Pacino himself, who invited her to play the role of Salome in his television film of the same name. People started talking about Jessica as a talented character actress, and the directors finally decided on the role of the red-haired beauty.

Jessica Chastain and Brad Pitt in the film “The Tree of Life” It is worth noting that Chastain’s aristocratic appearance, her fiery hair color and alabaster skin initially did not play into the hands of the young actress. Only in 2011, viewers and film critics were able to discern her unique charisma, which was fully demonstrated in the film “The Tree of Life.” Jessica played the mother of the main character and made worthy company with Brad Pitt and Sean Penn.

Jessica Chastain in the film “Payback” At the same time, another film with the participation of the actress was released – “Payback” (2010), which was also warmly received by the public. And the role of the businessman’s wife Celia Foote in the drama “The Help” (2011) brought the actress Oscar and Golden Globe nominations and finally secured her status as a rising Hollywood star. Interestingly, for one of the episodes in which Jessica eats fried chicken with appetite, a special dummy was prepared for her, since the girl is a vegetarian and does not eat meat at all. The trailer for the film “The Help” starring Jessica Chastain in 2012 became even more successful in career as an actress. Chastain voiced a jaguar in the cartoon Madagascar 3 and received a fabulous fee for this work, equal to her total income for all previous years in cinema. For her role as Maya in the political thriller Zero Dark Thirty, the actress was nominated for the main Academy Award for the second time and won a Golden Globe. The actress’s work in the films “The Drunkest District in the World” and “The Color of Time,” which were also highly praised by leading film critics, deserves no less attention. The same year, Chastain took part in an advertising campaign for the Yves Saint Laurent fashion house and became the face of the Manifesto fragrance.

Jessica Chastain became the face of the Manifesto fragrance. A year later, Jessica began filming the trilogy “The Disappearance of Eleanor Rigby,” where she played the main role and tried herself as a producer for the first time. In 2013, Jess also tried her hand at music for the first time: for her role in the film “Mom,” the actress had to learn to play the bass guitar in record time in order to more convincingly get used to the image of a rocker.

Jessica Chastain and James McAvoy in the film “The Disappearance of Eleanor Rigby” In 2014, the premiere of the large-scale fantasy “Interstellar” with Matthew McConaughey took place, which brought the actress new experience in the field of science fiction and large financial dividends. The script of the film was kept in strict secrecy, and the production process was forbidden to discuss even with close relatives. And the result was truly worth it: the audience was stunned.

Jessica Chastain in the film “Interstellar” In the same year, the crime drama “A Most Violent Year” premiered, for her work in which Jessica was nominated for a Golden Globe for the third time. For this role, the actress had to master a peculiar New York accent in just a couple of weeks. Trailer of the film “The Martian” starring Jessica Chastain. In 2020, Jessica’s filmography was supplemented with several more striking works. In the fall, the science-fiction film “The Martian” was released, in which Chastain played the role of a female astronaut, the leader of an interplanetary expedition. In preparation for this role, the actress spent several weeks at the NASA Space Center in conditions as close as possible to orbital ones.

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Every Jess role is a challenge. For example, to work in the horror film Crimson Peak, Jessica had to learn to play the piano and lose 8 kilograms in order to look physically exhausted on camera. Jessica Chastain in the film Miss Sloane (trailer) In 2016, the actress appeared in the political thriller Miss Sloane ", for the role in which she was once again nominated for a Golden Globe, which eluded her this time too. Another nomination awaited Chastain for her work in the crime drama “The Big Game,” where she portrayed on the screen the image of former skier Molly Bloom, who, after finishing her sports career, began organizing underground poker tournaments.

Jessica Chastain in the film “The Zookeeper's Wife” In 2020, the premiere of the war drama “The Zookeeper’s Wife” took place, in which Jessica’s heroine saves three hundred Polish Jews from fascist persecution by hiding them within the walls of the Warsaw Zoo. This picture became Chastain's second production project.

PERSONAL LIFE OF JESSICA CHASTEIN

Despite high creative ambitions, a busy work schedule and feminist views, the actress never suffered from a lack of attention from the opposite sex. For several years, Jessica dated director Ned Benson and even worked with him on the trilogy “The Disappearance of Eleanor Rigby,” although by this time their relationship had already completely exhausted itself.

This was followed by an affair with actor Tom Hiddleston, after breaking up with whom Jessica announced that she no longer wanted to start a love story with her colleagues.

In the summer of 2020, the actress officially got married. Her chosen one was the designer of the fashion brand Moncler, the Italian aristocrat Jean Luca Passi de Preposulo.

The wedding took place at the groom's family estate in Northern Italy, which has belonged to his family since the 17th century.

Before this happy event, the lovers had been dating for five years and were able to thoroughly test their feelings. Jessica admits that she has finally found personal happiness in her husband.

Jean Luca fully shares the interests of his wife, just like her, he loves animals and takes care of them, practices yoga and has a positive attitude towards vegetarianism.

Filmography

Actress

1. 355 (2021)
2. X-Men: Dark Phoenix (2019) ... Smith
3. It Chapter Two (2019) ... Beverly Marsh
4. Big Game / Molly`s Game (2017) ... Molly Bloom
5. The Zookeeper's Wife (2017) ... Antonina Zabinski
6. Woman Walks Ahead (2017) ... Catherine Weldon
7. Snow White and the Huntsman 2 / The Huntsman Winter`s War (2016) ... Sara
8. Blonde (2016) ... Marilyn Monroe
9. Animals. /Animals. (2016-2018) (TV series) ... Sarah
10. Dangerous Game Sloane / Miss Sloane (2016) ... Elizabeth Sloane
11. Crimson Peak (2015) ... Lady Lucille Sharpe
12. The Martian (2015) ... Melissa Lewis
13. Interstellar (2014) ... Murph
14. The Disappearance of Eleanor Rigby: Them (2014) ... Eleanor Rigby
15. Miss Julie (2014) … Miss Julie
16. A Most Violent Year (2014) ... Anna Morales
17. The Disappearance of Eleanor Rigby: Him (2013) ... Eleanor Rigby
18. The Disappearance of Eleanor Rigby: Her (2013) ... Eleanor Rigby
19. Mom / Mama (2013) ... Annabel
20. Salome (2013) ... Salome
21. Seduced And Abandoned (2013) ... Herself
22. Tar / Tar (2012) ... Mrs. Williams
23. Madagascar 3 / Madagascar 3: Europe`s Most Wanted (2012) ... Gia
24. The Drunkest County in the World / Lawless (2012) ... Maggie Beauford
25. Zero Dark Thirty (2012) ... Maya
26. The Tree of Life (2011) ... Mrs. O'Brien
27. Coriolanus (2011) ... Virgilia
28. Touch of Evil (2011) … Jessica Chastain
29. Texas Killing Fields (2011) ... Pam Stall
30. The Help (2011) … Celia Foote
31. Wilde Salome (2011) ... Salome
32. Take Shelter (2011) … Samantha
33. The Westerner (2010) ... Daniel's Mother
34. Reckoning / The Debt (2010) ... Young Rachel
35. Boy in the Box / Stolen (2009) ... Sally Ann
36. Jolene / Jolene (2008) ... Jolene
37. Forward to the past! / Journeyman (2007) (TV series) ... Tanna Bloom
38. Evidence / The Evidence (2006) (TV series) ... Laura Green
39. Pirates of the Seven Seas: Blackbeard / Pirates: The True Story of Blackbeard (2006) ... Charlotte Ormand (3 episodes, 2006)
40. Law & Order: Trial by Jury (2005) (TV series) ... ADA Sigrun Borg
41. Dark Shadows (2005) ... Carolyn Stoddard
42. Close to Home (2005-2007) (TV series) ... Casey Wirth
43. Veronica Mars / Veronica Mars (2004-2019) (TV series) ... Sarah Williams
44. Ambulance / ER (1994-2009) (TV series) ... Dahlia Taslitz
45. Poirot / Agatha Christie`s Poirot (1989-2013) (TV series) ... Mary Debenham

The most cruel year

A Most Violent Year

• USA, 2014.
• Crime drama.
• Duration: 125 minutes.
• IMDb: 7.0.

The plot of the dramatic film directed by JC Chandor revolves around the life of American immigrant Abel Morales, who wants to save his business. However, an unprecedented crime spree in New York threatens to destroy everything he has created.

Jessica Chastain received the National Board of Review Award for Best Supporting Actress. The role of Abel Morales' wife Anna - a brave, powerful and luxurious beauty - was first supposed to go to Charlize Theron.

Watch on Google Play →