The Crimson Peak collaborators discuss what Nightmare Alley and The Eyes of Tammy Faye have in common: “You don’t fool people, they fool themselves.”

In Reunited, Awards Insider hosts a conversation between two Oscar contenders who have collaborated on a previous project. Here, we speak with Nightmare Alley director Guillermo del Toro and The Eyes of Tammy Faye star Jessica Chastain, who previously worked together on the 2015 film Crimson Peak.

Guillermo del Toro has something going on with women with keys.

When the Oscar-winning Mexican director and Jessica Chastain reunite in Los Angeles to talk about their work together—on both Mama and Crimson Peak—along with their current projects—Nightmare Alley and The Eyes of Tammy Faye—Chastain points out that at least two of del Toro’s films have featured a woman with keys.
First, it was in 2001’s The Devil’s Backbone, in which Carmen (Marisa Paredes) is the keeper of the keys of the orphanage. And then in Crimson Peak, it’s Chastain’s character, Lucille, who always has a dangling set of house keys at her side. Del Toro himself realizes that Nightmare Alley also has a woman with keys, this time played by Cate Blanchett. “Freud would have something to say about that,” he jokes about this recurring theme.

“What is it about a woman with a ring of keys who could lock you into scary rooms that is so scary?” asks Chastain.

The pair have an easy rapport after having worked so closely on two films. After meeting to talk about Mama, the 2013 horror film that del Toro produced for director Andy Muschietti, the pair was brought back together for 2015’s Crimson Peak, in which Chastain got to really dig in as the baddie Lucille.
Chastain plays a very different character in her latest film, The Eyes of Tammy Faye, for which she’s already earned a SAG Award nomination. But the televangelist whose husband swindled people out of millions of dollars does have something in common with the characters in del Toro’s noir drama: They’re all looking to get ahead by taking advantage of the faith of others. Vanity Fair explored this thematic connection with the pair, along with reminiscing about their early work.

Vanity Fair: What do you remember about the first time you met?
Jessica Chastain: I was on crutches.
Guillermo del Toro: On crutches, and you were wearing a super baggy T-shirt, and we met—
Chastain: —at Shutters.
Del Toro: Shutters at the Beach, to have breakfast and talk about Mama.
Chastain: Yes, that’s right. And he’s talking to me about doing a horror film, and I stumble in on crutches. You’re like, “What happened?”

Read the full interview/article in our press library and watch the video interview also.

Jessica Chastain was a guest-in-remote to the Jimmy Fallon talk-show last night and below are a few photos and the two videos uploaded to his channel. Take a look!

The gallery has been updated with HQ Digital Scans of Jessica Chastain cover for The Sunday Times Style, January 16 issue. Enjoy!

Jessica Chastain’s theatrical range knows no bounds—she’s played a fiercely protective wife and mother as Anna Morales in A Most Violent Year; the “epitome of grace,” as she puts it, in The Tree of Life; and most recently, she embodied the infamous televangelist Tammy Faye Bakker in The Eyes of Tammy Faye. For W’s annual Best Performances issue, Chastain reflects on almost 10 years of learning about Tammy and her approach to faith—while discovering some religion of her own along the way.

How did The Eyes of Tammy Faye come into your life?

I was on the press tour for Zero Dark Thirty, and I was jet-lagged in a hotel room somewhere. The documentary on Tammy Faye came on television, and I was blown away by her and the true story of who she was. I called my manager and my agent, and I said, “How do I figure out how to make a movie?” I got the rights in 2012, and we were on set shooting seven years later.

How did you bridge that gap between using information in the documentary and re-creating Tammy’s life in your own film?

I just wanted to tell her story so bad. And in fact, the documentary filmmakers were so sweet. They told me recently that on our first meeting, right before they gave me the rights to the story, they were like, “I don’t think Jessica could do this.” They’d been so supportive and given me hundreds of hours of unused footage from the doc. They absolutely took a leap of faith by allowing me to tell her story.

Read the full interview in our press archive and watch a video of Jessica discussing Tammy Faye.

Jessica Chastain explained that her grandma is at an age where she does whatever she wants and doesn’t care what happens — like when she decided to playfully sit on Bradley Cooper’s lap during one of Jessica’s parties. The acclaimed actress also chatted about drinking a lot of Bourbon while she portrayed country singer Tammy Wynette and going to new heights for her stunts on new action film, “The 355.”

Jessica Chastain and Sebastian Stan didn’t hold anything back while shooting “The 355.” The pair talked to Access Hollywood’s Zuri Hall and dished on their impressive fight scenes, which Sebastian said left a mark, literally. The 39-year-old actor joked that Jessica hit him and left a footprint on his chest. “That was a delicate little caress on your heart,” she joked. Jessica also ended up in the hospital after a hard fall. The “Avengers” star also revealed he asked “The Eyes of Tammy Faye” star for advice while transforming into Tommy Lee for the upcoming mini-series “Pam & Tommy.”

James Corden welcomes his guests Penélope Cruz and Jessica Chastain to promote their new upcoming feature, “The 355”.

We got the incredibly talented Jessica Chastain to read and answer your stan tweets.
Find out who her wifey is, why she wanted to create The 355 and what it is about Sebastian Stan and Edgar Ramirez that she loves.