The Oscar winner’s latest triumph is her portrayal of Nora Helmer in ‘A Doll’s House,’ which almost didn’t happen.

NEW YORK — Jessica Chastain hadn’t been in a play in so long that the thought of it filled her with dread. “It was just crazy because I started in theater,” said the Juilliard graduate, now 45, and a mom, and an Oscar winner and at that point in a career when an actor can call her own shots.

So a supportive friend, James McAvoy, who toggles between stage and screen, connected her with British director Jamie Lloyd. He, like Chastain, has his own production company, except his is geared toward plays and hers, Freckle Films, makes movies, like “The Eyes of Tammy Faye,” the picture that won her a 2022 Academy Award. “He goes, ‘Why aren’t you doing any theater?’” she said of Lloyd. “And I’m like, ‘Oh, I’m just very scared.’”

The admission was an icebreaker, because it commenced a discussion about what stage project they might attempt to bring her back, a spitballing that began with “The Duchess of Malfi” and “Summer and Smoke” in London, and eventually settled on “A Doll’s House” on Broadway. The confidence and trust that developed between them calmed Chastain’s nerves — and led to an assured, austere revival of Ibsen’s 1879 play, a recently opened production that is a hit with critics and poised for commercial success.

“I just felt so inspired about the way that he sees the world,” Chastain observed about Lloyd, as she sat sipping water recently at Freckle Films’s office in Chelsea. As Lloyd recalled, it was Chastain who suggested “A Doll’s House.” Lloyd said he looked at many versions before commissioning playwright Amy Herzog to write a new one that he would stage with virtually no embellishments — just actors in dark colors, and chairs on a revolving set.

“When it’s just actors in space, the connection between them in space, you see things from a different point of view,” the director said by phone. “You literally see them from a different perspective.”

Whatever allayed Chastain’s trepidation, it was a boon for Broadway, paving the way for a buzzworthy star turn in a season sorely in need of them. Chastain’s only previous Broadway role was a decade ago, in a revival of “The Heiress.”

Read the full article/interview in our press library.

Celebrity stylist Elizabeth Stewart talks to BAZAAR.com about last night’s showstopping look.

After winning the Academy Award for Best Actress at last year’s ceremony, Jessica Chastain returned to the Oscars stage at Los Angeles’s Dolby Theatre last night. So, how exactly does an Academy Award winner dress? In head-to-toe Gucci, of course.

“[Gucci] has an uncanny way of capturing her spirit with their designs,” Elizabeth Stewart, Chastain’s stylist, tells BAZAAR.com

The star—who won her first Oscar for her starring role in The Eyes of Tammy Faye—attended the 95th annual Academy Awards last night as one of the evening’s A-list presenters. She joined Halle Berry in handing off the gold statuette for Best Actress to Michelle Yeoh.

For the historic occasion, Chastain and Stewart teamed up with the Italian fashion house to deliver a timeless red-carpet look. This included a strapless gown completely embellished with glimmering silver crystals and sequins. The dress also included a plunging deep V-neckline, black trim details at the bustier, and an attached black train.

“The dress is sleek and minimalist and iconic and glamorous all at the same time. It captures Jessica’s vibe on a sartorial and practical level,” Stewart explains. “She is currently on Broadway, and we needed a dress she would love and would fit impeccably, with very minimal fitting time.”

The true centerpiece of the outfit, however, was the 18-carat white gold sparkler that hung around Chastain’s neck, courtesy of Gucci High Jewelry. The Lionhead necklace displayed a dazzling 80 carats’ worth of tsavorites and diamonds. (As the face of the luxe designer jewelry brand, we’d expect nothing less from Chastain!)

The entire ensemble, coupled with her dramatic glam and soft wavy hairdo, provided a much-appreciated modern take on Old Hollywood glamour.

During this past awards circuit, Chastain made multiple notable appearances while relying on Gucci High Jewelry to make a statement.

At the Screen Actor Guild Awards, she amped up the glamour in a hot pink Zuhair Murad gown paired with chandelier earrings by Gucci. And at the Golden Globes, she styled her crystal web Oscar de la Renta dress with an array of glittering Gucci rings.

Source

Jessica Chastain is a vision. Gorgeous and classy. She wore again a Gucci dress with bold accents of black and a wonderful green necklace to complete the outfit.
Enjoy the over 100 HQ photos I’ve added to the gallery and hopefully more will come later.

HQ Photos of Jessica Chastain during last night’s event of A Doll’s House have been added to the gallery. Enjoy!

Playwright Amy Herzog is the first woman to adapt Ibsen’s protofeminist play for Broadway.

In late 2020, Oscar winner Jessica Chastain was filming the HBO miniseries Scenes From a Marriage in New York City. At the same time, she was in conversation with British director Jamie Lloyd on a potential West End revival of A Doll’s House, in which she would play Nora. Lloyd then asked Chastain about bringing on a female playwright to adapt the Ibsen play. Recalls Chastain, “‘He said, ‘You know, I really think we need a woman’s voice on this.’ And I couldn’t agree with him more.” Luckily Chastain knew just the writer. Enter Obie-winning playwright Amy Herzog.

Chastain and Herzog had met on Scenes From a Marriage, where Herzog co-wrote the series and was the executive producer. And they had circled each other for years prior. Chastain had attended Juilliard with Herzog’s husband, Tony-winning director Sam Gold—and she had seen Herzog’s play The Great God Pan (starring a pre-Succession Jeremy Strong) Off-Broadway in 2012).

When they spoke to Playbill, Herzog was still fine-tuning her adaptation of A Doll’s House, which opens March 9 at the Hudson Theatre. Herzog’s inclusion is fitting considering that A Doll’s House is regarded a pivotal piece of feminist literature. Previous Broadway productions of Ibsen’s text, which was originally in Norwegian, used adaptations written by male authors. This new version, written by Herzog and led by Chastain, who has made waves in Hollywood for her advocacy for pay equity, finally puts women in charge of the storytelling (though the 1997 revival adapted by Frank McGuinness used a translation by Charlotte Barslund as its base).

When they spoke with Playbill, it was still early on in the rehearsal period but already, Chastain was effusive, saying that in contrast to how mannered and “less human” adaptations of classic texts can sometimes be, Herzog’s feels fresh and immediately accessible: “She makes it just feel so real and so honest and so personal. The language feels like it belongs to everyone in the room,” enthuses Chastain. “I find it to be incredibly inspiring to work on. I don’t have to manufacture, I don’t have to dig deep. I can just simply say the words and allow them to take me to places that I hadn’t planned out. And that’s a gift as an actor, to get that kind of text.”

Touched, and slightly stunned, Herzog responds, “Thank you, Jessica.”

Read the full article/interview in our press library.

Acceptance Speech and video interviews with Jessica Chastain on her SAG Award Win for her interpretation of Tammy Wynette story.

SAG AWARD WINNER JESSICA CHASTAIN, ladies and gentlemen! She shines and was the cutest thing ever seen on that stage.
How adorable and fashion she looked. Enjoy the HQ photos I added to the gallery, hoping for more additions to come.

In a pared-down Broadway revival of “A Doll’s House,” the Oscar-winning actress doesn’t have props, period costumes or much of a set. To her surprise, she likes it.

Less than a week before she was set to appear in a Broadway revival of “A Doll’s House” as Nora, one of the most iconic female roles in Western theater, Jessica Chastain confessed to a nagging worry.

“I don’t want it to feel like a TED Talk,” she said.

Chastain sat in the upstairs lounge at the Hudson Theater, where preview performances of “A Doll’s House” began on Feb. 13. She was fighting a cold and drinking Throat Coat herbal tea, dressed in a navy sweater and white sneakers, a fluffy tan coat pooling around her.

She was reflecting on what it means to be starring in a raw, radical reimagining of Henrik Ibsen’s 1879 play — a work long celebrated as a profound exploration of how gender roles confine women, distorting their identities.

Chastain has fought for pay equity in Hollywood, pushed for support of Planned Parenthood and used red-carpet and talk-show appearances to champion causes such as the women protesting repression in Iran. In films as varied as “Zero Dark Thirty” and “The Eyes of Tammy Faye,” she’s embodied complicated, ambitious women who refuse to be constrained.

So she wondered if taking on the role of Nora, theater’s most famous oppressed housewife, might seem too pointed, even preachy.

“I’m such an advocate, I’m so outspoken, so even putting me in the part, we’re already doing something, right?” Chastain said. “So how can I as an actor approach it in a way that doesn’t feel like I’m here to give everyone in the audience a lecture?”

The answer came as she began to realize Nora isn’t a victim dominated by her condescending husband, Torvald. She plays the role of the pretty, fragile, childlike wife for a reason.

“When denied, you work within a system to gain power, and we’re all responsible for that. So that’s not just, oh, Torvald is a villain because he’s put Nora in a cage. Nora has stepped in the cage to gain what little power she has,” Chastain said. “Because girls are taught so young to be smaller, right? So our voices get higher, we don’t want to be threatening, we’re docile and meek. That’s kind of bred into us. But that’s part of how we are helping it continue, women not being seen as equal. We’re playing a part so we’re palatable enough, so that people hopefully will listen to us.”

Read the full article/interview in our press library.

Now that it came to an end and everything can be placed rightfully, I have updated the George & Tammy section with episodic HQ stills of Jessica Chastain from each episode. Enjoy!

Last week Jessica Chastain went to The View to promote her new projects, no official images I could find yet but here are two clips from the official youtube account.

You can watch them both at our video vault.

End of last month, Jessica Chastain visited the Stephen Colbert show to promote her upcoming play “A Doll’s House”. Take a look at a few HQ photos and videos.

Jessica Chastain‘s been a household name for little more than a decade with critically acclaimed performances in buzzy films like Zero Dark Thirty, and it’s been nearly as long as her latest project George & Tammy was in the works.

Debuting in December 2022 and concluding in January 2023, it was roughly a ten-year journey to the small screen for the flawless limited series led by Chastain (who has already been nominated for a Golden Globe Award and SAG Award) and costar Michael Shannon who together portrays one of country music’s most famous couples — George Jones and Tammy Wynette. The Oscar-winner who has had awards luck in the past for playing another famous Tammy in The Eyes of Tammy Faye has been preparing for this big country break since the idea was floated by her at another awards show by executive producer Josh Brolin.

Below, she opens up about the process of honoring Wynette through her preparation, collaborating with costars Shannon and Steve Zahn, as well as what it was like to work alongside George and Tammy’s real-life daughter Georgette Jones. Plus, learn more about the story behind the show’s creation, along with Chastain’s approach to recreating the country icon’s performances.

Congratulations on your recent nominations for the Golden Globes and most recently the SAG Awards.
Jessica Chastain: Thank you. It’s very surprising. Most of the shows being recognized came out in the spring [and] we came out December 4th. So, we’re really surprised, and hopefully, it’ll encourage more people to watch it.

This series has been in the works for some time. Is it gratifying to have all of that hard work recognized in this way?
Oh yeah, absolutely. I mean, Josh Brolin actually approached me at the Golden Globes over 10 years ago and was the one who told me I should play Tammy Wynette. I didn’t really know much about her. It was the first year that I was at an award ceremony, and the first year of my career, so to have a movie star push me and tell me I should play a character. I was like, “Yes, I’ll do it.” So it really has been a long time coming and it’s been a lot of work. It’s a bit bittersweet because so much of the show is a two-hander between, [Michael Shannon] and I. And I just hope more people watch the show and recognize the once-in-a-lifetime performance that he gives in this series.

Read the full interview/article in our press library.