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]
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]
2011–2013: Breakthrough and rise to prominence
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]
2014–2020: Career fluctuations and expansion
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 $165 million, 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 $701 million 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 $600 million 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 U.S. gallons (17,000 liters) 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 theatre, 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 theatre in 2020, the production was cancelled 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]
Advocacy
Chastain identifies as a
feminist, and has often spoken out against the discrimination faced by women and minorities in Hollywood.[7][174][175][176] She penned an essay on gender imbalance in the industry for a December 2015 issue of The Hollywood Reporter.[177] At the
2017 Cannes Film Festival, where she served as a jury member, Chastain bemoaned the passive portrayal of women in most films.[178][179] She has complained about a lack of female film critics, which she believes hinders a gender-neutral perspective on film.[179] She advocates for greater
gender balance on sets, including more representation of women on film crews and in positions of power.[180] On social media, Chastain aims to "amplify the voices" of victims of
sexual harassment in the industry.[181] In 2018, she collaborated with 300 women in Hollywood to set up the
Time's Up initiative to protect women from harassment and discrimination.[182] In the same year, she appeared alongside several actresses in This Changes Everything, a documentary about the poor representation of women in Hollywood films.[183] 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.[184][185][186]
Chastain is a vocal advocate for
equal pay in the workplace, and turns down offers of work whose salaries she finds unfair.[7][187] 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.[188] 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.[189][190] In 2017, she featured alongside several Hollywood celebrities in a theatrical production of The Children's Monologues, in which she performed a monologue 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.[191] In 2020, Chastain became an investor in a Los Angeles-based franchise for the
National Women's Soccer League.[192] The new team has since been named
Angel City FC.[193]
Chastain supports charitable organizations that promote mental health, and is involved with the nonprofit organization
To Write Love on Her Arms.[194] 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.[195] In response to
abortion bans in certain American states, she joined several actors in refusing to work in those regions.[196]
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.[201]
Chastain specializes in portraying emotionally grueling roles and is drawn to parts of strong but flawed women.[11][202][203] The journalist
Sanjiv Bhattacharya has identified a theme of characters who "subvert gender expectations in some way".[187] David Ehrlich of
IndieWire credits her for being the sole American actress to consistently play roles that "champion feminist ideals".[204] She believes in extensive preparations for a role: "[I] fill myself up with as much history of the character as I can."[205] 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.[206] 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".[203] 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".[207] 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).[208]
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."[209] She was named the sexiest vegetarian actress in a poll conducted by
PETA in 2012.[210] From 2012 to 2014, she was featured in
AskMen's listing of the most desirable women,[211] and in 2015, Glamour magazine ranked her as one of the best-dressed women.[212]
Time magazine named Chastain one of the
100 most influential people in the world in 2012.[213] 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.[214][215] 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.[216][217] 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.[218]
Personal life
Despite significant media attention, Chastain remains guarded about her personal life, and chooses not to attend red carpet events with a partner.[219][202] 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.[220] Chastain has cited the actress
Isabelle Huppert as an influence, for managing a family, while also playing "out-there roles" on screen.[221]
In the 2000s, Chastain was in a long-term relationship with writer-director
Ned Benson that ended in 2010.[224] 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][202] On June 10, 2017, Chastain married Preposulo at his family's estate in
Carbonera, Italy.[225] In 2018, the couple had a daughter named Giulietta Passi Chastain through surrogacy.[226][227] They later had a son named Augustus Passi.[138] They reside in New York City.[228][229]
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abOxman, Steven (April 30, 2006).
"Review: 'Salome'". Variety.
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^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.
^
abWhite, 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.