Jessica Chastain on ‘hiding’ from her co-stars and allowing herself ‘not to be liked’
Jessica Chastain says she “hid” from her co-stars during her latest project, going out of her way to distance herself and allow herself “not to be liked”.
The 46-year-old Oscar winner, who stars in Michel Franco drama Memory, told Sky News: “Sometimes I play characters who know everything. They’re the smartest person in the room, and they know what’s going to happen.
“It was interesting to play something and to work in a way where you just didn’t know, and you were free to discover.”
She plays Sylvia, a recovering alcoholic, whose past trauma is reawakened when Saul, played by Peter Sarsgaard, follows her home from their high school reunion.
Dopesick star Sarsgaard, chips in: “I don’t mind the smartest person in the room as they also listen.”
Happily married to Oscar-nominated actress Maggie Gyllenhaal for 15 years, he tells Sky News: “I remember when my wife was younger, some arsehole telling her, ‘Oh, you always have to be the smartest person in the room, don’t you?’
“And I think that’s something that’s levelled on people, certain women, especially, and those same people, if they’re really good at what they do, also really listen”.
Despite their good working relationship, Chastain explains how she used a method approach to bringing her character’s conflicted emotions towards Saul to the screen.
(L-R) Peter Sarsgaard and Jessica Chastain. Pic: Ketchup Entertainment/Bohemia Media
‘I didn’t know if the sound of my voice annoyed him’
“Peter and I didn’t really talk on set. We would say good morning to each other, but I kind of hid from everyone. And then we got to know each other as the characters in chronological order.
“So, every time we would get to set and speak, I was looking at him, not knowing how he felt about me, not knowing if he liked me, not knowing if the sound of my voice annoyed him.
“Just these normal things that we think about someone else, I was experiencing as Sylvia because I was allowing myself to not be liked.
“Sometimes you feel like you need to woo someone when the cameras aren’t rolling, so they’ll like you. And I was willing to be ok if he didn’t like me, to find out how the characters would interact.”
Chastain used the same approach with her onscreen daughter, Anna, played by Brooke Timber.
“I hung out with her, I had a lunch with her, but at the same time I kept her this little bit at arm’s length because Sylvia would have acted like that. And I allowed that to create a little bit of an unknowing and a tension between us.”
She goes on: “Sylvia never had an example of what good mothering would be. So, she doesn’t really know how to communicate, and to solve a problem she buys an iPhone for her daughter… I really was discovering a whole new way of mother daughter dynamic in this film.”
Pic: Ketchup Entertainment/Bohemia Media
‘The goal was Jessica Chastain’
Meanwhile, Sarsgaard’s character Saul faces a different challenge – he is suffering from early onset dementia.
Sarsgaard says he’d never seen this aspect of dementia bought to the screen before, “the period where families are adjusting, people are adjusting to new conditions and trying to figure out how to live their lives”.
Gleaning insight from real-life dementia sufferers, including his own uncle who had the disease, he pieced together a way to faithfully portray the condition in the film.
“For me, the condition in the end was just the obstacle. The goal was Jessica Chastain… He’s just a guy who wants something incredibly beautiful. You know, he wants something that we all want in our lives. And so, it was very easy to play on some level.
“I was playing someone who had nothing to lose and didn’t mind being rejected or partially rejected – I mean I minded it – but my reaction to rejection was always to put my heart out a little bit more, show a little bit more of myself, show up, try to connect.”
Michel Franco’s next feature
Both Chastain and Sarsgaard speak incredibly highly of the man leading the film, Mexican director Michel Franco.
Chastain says the 44-year-old filmmaker whose movies often depict dysfunctional families, kept his cast on their toes.
“He did surprise me from day one when he said during rehearsals: ‘Go to the Target [a big US discount superstore] and find some clothes for Silvia’. I was like, ‘Wow, I’ve never worked like this before, except in drama school where I’m getting my costumes together for scene study class’.”
It’s a process she clearly enjoyed, reuniting with Franco over the summer on his follow-up feature Dreams, which is currently in post-production.
Memory is in UK and Irish cinemas now.
Jimmy Cliff, a musical artist who helped bring reggae to an international audience, has died aged 81.
Known for hits including You Can Get It If You Really Want, The Harder They Come, and Many Rivers To Cross, his career spanned six decades.
Cliff performing on the Pyramid Stage, at the Glastonbury Festival in 2003. Pic: PA
His wife, Latifa Chambers wrote on Instagram: “It’s with profound sadness that I share that my husband, Jimmy Cliff, has crossed over due to a seizure followed by pneumonia.
“I am thankful for his family, friends, fellow artists and coworkers who have shared his journey with him.
“To all his fans around the world, please know that your support was his strength throughout his whole career. He really appreciated each and every fan for their love.”
Thanking the medical staff who helped during his illness, she added: “Jimmy, my darling, may you rest in peace. I will follow your wishes.”
Signed by his wife, and two of his children, Latifa and Lilty, the statement concluded: “We see you Legend.”
Tributes to the singer included those from Jamaican Prime Minister Andrew Holness, calling him “a true cultural giant whose music carried the heart of our nation to the world… Jimmy Cliff told our story with honesty and soul. His music lifted people through hard times, inspired generations, and helped to shape the global respect that Jamaican culture enjoys today.”
UB40 star Ali Campbell, who covered Cliff’s song Many Rivers To Cross in 1983, also paid tribute, saying he was “absolutely heartbroken to hear about the passing of a Reggae forefather” in a post on X.
Campbell also called Cliff “a pillar of our music, and one of the first to carry reggae out into the world”.
Jimmy Cliff (L) stands with Wyclef Jean at his Rock and Roll Hall of Fame induction in 2010. Pic: Reuters
A legend of music and screen
A two-time Grammy-winning artist, Cliff was awarded the Jamaican Order of Merit in 2003, the highest honour in the arts and sciences, from the Jamaican government.
Over the years, he would work with stars including the Rolling Stones, Sting, Elvis Costello, Annie Lennox, Paul Simon and Wyclef Jean.
He was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2010.
A prolific writer, frequently expressing his humanitarian views through his work, his 1969 track Vietnam was reportedly described by Bob Dylan as “the best protest song” he had ever heard.
Cliff was also well known for cover versions of songs, including Johnny Nash’s I Can See Clearly Now, which appeared on the soundtrack of the 1993 movie Cool Runnings, and Cat Stevens’ Wild World.
He twice performed on high-profile US chat show Saturday Night Live.
An actor and a musician, as well as singing the title track of 1972 cult classic The Harder They Come, Cliff also starred in it.
One of the first major commercial releases to come out of Jamaica, the movie is credited with bringing reggae to the world, as well as showing a grittier and more realistic side to the country.
During this time, Cliff’s fame rivalled Bob Marley as the reggae’s most prominent artist.
The storyline, which revolved around Cliff’s character, Ivan, moving to Kingston, Jamaica, to make it as a musical superstar, had parallels with his own.
Cliff at the MOBO (Music of Black Origin) Awards at the London Arena in London’s Docklands in 2002. Pic: PA
‘Hurricane Hattie’
He was born James Chambers, during a hurricane, on 30 July 1944, in St James Parish, northwestern Jamaica.
In the 1950s, he moved with his father from the family farm to Kingston, determined to succeed in the music industry.
He began writing as Jamaica was gaining its independence from Britain, and as the early sounds of reggae – first called ska – were being developed.
At just 14, he became nationally famous for the song Hurricane Hattie, which he had written himself.
Cliff would go on to record over 30 albums and perform all over the world, including in Paris, in Brazil and at the World’s Fair, an international exhibition held in New York in 1964.
The following year, Island Records’ Chris Blackwell, the producer who launched Bob Marley And The Wailers, invited Cliff to work in the UK.
Jimmy Cliff during the Love Supreme Jazz Festival in 2019. Pic: Shutterstock
‘I still have many rivers to cross!’
Speaking about his burning passion for life during a 2019 interview, when the star had begun losing his sight, Cliff said: “When I’ve achieved all my ambitions, then I guess that I will have done it and I can just say ‘great’.
“But I’m still hungry. I want it. I’ve still got the burning fire that burns brightly inside of me – like I just said to you. I still have many rivers to cross!”
Cliff’s last studio album, Refugees, made with Wyclef Jean, was released in 2022, and the singer said he wrote the title track “due to emotional feelings towards freedom taken away from human beings”.
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