Jessica Chastain was born on March 24, 1977 and raised in Northern California. At the age of nine she became interested in dancing and by the age of thirteen she was in a dance troupe. She played Juliet in the stage play of Romeo and Juliet, which was staged by a professional theater company which took the production all over the Bay area. She attended Juillard School in New York after an action in the Romeo and Juliet production encouraged her to audition for it. She was accepted and she became a member of the drama divisions. She played in several plays. She moved to California and started appearing on TV shows in 2004 (pilot for Dark Shadows, ER, Veronica Mars, Close to Home and Law & Order). She made the move to movies, which has turned out to be a great move as she has been making a name for herself. She has acted in movies like The Help (for which she earned an Oscar nomination), The Tree of Life, Texas Killing Fields, The Debt and Lawless. She starred as the driven investigator looking to capture Bin Laden in Zero Dark Thirty and has had more leading roles since.
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She joined director Christopher Nolan for his amazing Interstellar about A team of explorers who travel through a wormhole in space in an attempt to ensure humanity’s survival. In A Most Violent Year she had a strong appearance as Oscar Isaac’s wife who is willing to do anything to make sure her family is safe. Just like Interstellar, The Martian was another space movie she played in, this time as the Commander of the Ares III manned mission to Mars. Her next movie would be Guillermo Del Toro’s fantasy/horror film Crimson Peak. The Huntsman: Winter’s War might have not been well received, but was a starring role in what studio’s hoped to be a big blockbuster (which it wasn’t).
Miss Sloane allowed her to show her acting chops again as she was the main character, the most sought after and formidable lobbyist in D.C. She played a similar role in Molly’s Game, about Molly Bloom, the true story about a former Olympic-class skier who decided to run a high-stakes poker game, which attracted various celebrities. When she became a target for the FBI she decided to write a book, revealing the names and gambling styles of various celebrity stars. Next she decided to do a smaller movie, Woman walks ahead, a biographical movie about a portrait painter from 1890’s Brooklyn, which wasn’t a huge success. Chastain had a chance to work with talented director Ava DuVernay in the music video for Jay-Z’s Family Feud (starring Beyonce).
She is currently working on several films including The Division, Seducing Ingrid Bergman (where she will play Ingrid Bergman), the superhero movie Painkiller Jane, the biographic film George and Tammy (as Tammy Wynette). Next year you will be able to see her in X-Men: Dark Phoenix and in the sequel of last year’s surprise Stephen King hit It, It: Chapter Two (as Beverly Marsh).
What’s your favorite Jessica Chastain role?
