Jessica Chastain

Actor

• Place of Birth: Sacramento, California

Contribution: Appearances in seven full-length feature films in 2011 and the Oscar-nominated Zero Dark Thirty in 2012 helped American actress Jessica Chastain elevate her profile significantly. Through the remainder of the 2010s and into the early 2020s, she continued to appear in a number of acclaimed roles and has additionally become known for such films as The Zookeeper's Wife (2017) and It Chapter Two (2019). In 2022, she won an Academy Award and Screen Actors Guild Award for Best Actress for her performance in The Eyes of Tammy Faye (2021). She has also drawn raves and won a Drama Desk Award for her work on Broadway.

Background

Jessica Chastain was born Jessica Michelle Howard on March 24, 1977, in Sacramento, California. She and her four siblings were raised in a San Francisco suburb by their firefighter father and vegan chef mother. Chastain’s interest in the performing arts first blossomed when her grandmother took her to a production of the Andrew Lloyd Webber musical Joseph and the Technicolor Dreamcoat at age seven. By the time Chastain was a teenager, she was an experienced dancer, performing regularly with a local dance troupe. She later turned her attention to acting and, taking her mother’s maiden name as her stage name, began appearing frequently in various Shakespearean productions throughout the Bay Area.

After graduating from high school, Chastain set her sights on a professional acting career and earned herself a spot at the prestigious Julliard School of Drama in New York. During her last year at Julliard, she was discovered in an acting showcase by television producer John Wells. With Wells’s help, Chastain began her journey toward becoming a major Hollywood star.

Career

After Chastain finished her education at Juilliard, she signed a twelve-month contract with Wells that jump-started her acting career. She began making a name for herself with a series of guest appearances on a variety of popular television shows including ER, Veronica Mars, and Law & Order: Trial by Jury. She also remained committed to her stage career during this period, appearing in a touring theater group alongside actor Philip Seymour Hoffman.

In 2008, Chastain made her feature film debut as an abused teenager desperate to escape a recurring cycle of domestic violence and find a better life in Jolene. She continued to find regular work over the next two years, playing parts in Stolen (2009) and a short film called The Westerner (2010), as well as making yet another television guest appearance, this time on Agatha Christie’s Poirot.

Chastain’s breakthrough year arrived in 2011, when she appeared in a remarkable seven films and firmly established herself as one of Hollywood’s most talented actors. She began the year playing an Israeli intelligence agent on the hunt for a suspected Nazi war criminal in The Debt (2011). She followed that by playing the wife of a Midwestern construction worker who suffers from apocalyptic premonitions in Take Shelter (2011). Chastain then returned to her Shakespearean roots, taking on the role of Virgilia in Coriolanus (2011).

Chastain’s two most significant films of 2011 were The Tree of Life and The Help. In The Tree of Life, which was helmed by highly regarded director Terrence Malick, she played the wife and mother of a 1950s Midwestern family. The family’s sweeping story is told through the eyes of a troubled son. Being selected by Malick was a major boon for Chastain that, along with her performance, significantly boosted her profile in the film industry. She followed her breakthrough performance in The Tree of Life with another—appearing as a vivacious Southern belle in The Help, a 1960s period piece. The movie centers on an aspiring young writer’s attempt to capture the point of view of African American house cleaners working for upper class White families. Her highly praised portrayal of Celia Foote in The Help earned Chastain her first Academy Award nomination—for best supporting actress—and made her a bona fide star.

After rounding out a whirlwind 2011 with roles in both Wilde Salome (2011) and Texas Killing Fields (2011), Chastain embarked on a less hectic, though still successful, 2012. Most notably, she played the lead role in director Kathryn Bigelow’s Zero Dark Thirty (2012). Chastain starred as Maya, the determined CIA operative leading the hunt for terrorist mastermind Osama bin Laden. Critics praised both the film and Chastain’s performance, for which she earned a second Academy Award nomination and her first Golden Globes win.

Still not slowing down, between 2013 and 2014, Chastain appeared in Mama (2013), The Disappearance of Eleanor Rigby: Him (2013), The Disappearance of Eleanor Rigby: Her (2013), Miss Julie (2014), The Disappearance of Eleanor Rigby: Them (2014), and Interstellar (2014). In 2015, she appeared in the fantasy-horror film Crimson Peak, and also portrayed the mission commander in the well-received film adaptation of Andy Weir's 2011 novel The Martian. Her next appearances on screen were as a lobbyist in 2016's Miss Sloane and as a warrior in the fantasy-adventure The Huntsman: Winter's War (2016). She had the opportunity to take part in translating another book to the big screen with 2017's The Zookeeper's Wife, which was based on the 2007 book by Diane Ackerman recounting how a woman was able to save a number of Jews during the Holocaust. However, following roles in the films Molly's Game (2017), Woman Walks Ahead (2017), and Dark Phoenix, her next biggest part came with her role as the adult Beverly Marsh in the 2019 second installment of Stephen King's 1986 classic It, titled It Chapter Two.

In 2021, Chastain earned praise from critics for her starring role as televangelist Tammy Faye Bakker in the biography film The Eyes of Tammy Faye, and the following year won her first Academy Award for this performance, as well as the Screen Actors Guild award for Best Actress. In 2022, Chastain also appeared in the blockbuster action film The 355, which proved to be a critical and commercial disappointment; Armageddon Time; The Good Nurse; and the series George and Tammy, in which she portrays Tammy Wynette. She collected a Screen Actors Guild Award for outstanding performance by a female actor in a television movie or limited series and was nominated for an Emmy for the latter role. She costarred with Anne Hathaway in the 2024 film Mothers' Instinct.

She returned to Broadway in 2023 portraying Nora Helmer in A Doll's House. Playwright Amy Herzog penned the adaptation of Henrik Ibsen's classic work.

Impact

In relatively short order, Chastain rose to become a highly respected and much sought after actor. Her critically acclaimed performance in Zero Dark Thirty demonstrated remarkable versatility and unrelenting commitment to her craft. Having established herself as a success among critics and at the box office, Chastain has become one of Hollywood’s most recognized actors.

Personal Life

Chastain married Gian Luca Passi de Preposulo in Italy in 2017. They are the parents of Giulietta Preposulo and Agustus Preposulo.

Bibliography

Chai, Barbara. “‘Zero Dark Thirty’ Star Jessica Chastain on Those ‘Homeland’ Comparisons.” Wall Street Journal. Dow Jones and Co., 8 Jan. 2013. Web. 20 June 2013.

"Jessica Chastain." Internet Broadway Database, June 2023, www.ibdb.com/broadway-cast-staff/jessica-chastain-493116#Credits. Accessed 19 Sept. 2024.

Masters, Tim. “Is Jessica Chastain Hollywood’s Best Kept Secret?” BBC News. BBC, 10 July 2011. Web. 20 June 2013.

McHenry, Jackson. "Just a Couple of Ibsen Lovers." Vulture, 23 Feb. 2024, www.vulture.com/article/an-enemy-of-the-people-amy-herzog-sam-gold-mary-jane-broadway-interview.html. Accessed 19 Sept. 2024.

Nordyke, Kimberly. “SAG Awards: Winners List.” The Hollywood Reporter, 27 Feb. 2022, www.hollywoodreporter.com/movies/movie-news/sag-awards-winners-2022-complete-list-1235100358/. Accessed 3 Mar. 2022.

Palmer, Martyn. “Jessica Chastain: Meet the Actress Who’s Firing Up the A-List.” Daily Mail. Associated Newspapers, 21 Nov. 2011. Web. 20 June 2013.

Peretz, Evgenia. “Angel on Horseback.” Vanity Fair. Vanity Fair, Sept. 2012. Web. 20 June 2013.

Rochlin, Margy. “A Star Not Quite Overnight.” New York Times. New York Times Co., 24 Aug. 2011. Web. 20 June 2013.