PHOTOGRAPHY JUANKR
STYLING sylvia montoliu
WORDS Eugenie Kelly
Chastain
Hollywood’s enigma on misogyny, motherhood & making change through film
I
Let’s just clarify that this isn’t just any wallpaper. It’s a lavish, whimsical botanical print, a Ralph Lauren design, I’m guessing. “I have this huge curiosity and excitement for life!” she exclaims, eyes wide. “To learn about all different kinds of people and different points of view.” She looks at the wall behind her. “And that includes a lot of colours, textures, smells, tastes … I’m insatiable in my appetite for life.”
The 48-year-old Oscar winner has been home less than 24 hours, after months filming in Dublin, followed by a five-week stint hitting the books at Harvard (more on that later), and already she’s back in business mode. Her gaze is magnetic – even in a Zoom interview on a computer screen. The famous fiery copper locks have taken on a darker chocolate tinge that matches her brown silk shirt, while bookish tortoiseshell glasses sit at the end of her nose, her golden-green eyes peering over them. She’s friendly, nevertheless laser-focused.
It’s like she’s mirroring her character (albeit a glossier version) from the now postponed eight-episode Apple TV+ thriller The Savant. Based on a true story that was inspired by Andrea Stanley’s 2019 Cosmopolitan feature article, “Is it possible to stop a mass shooting before it happens?”, Chastain plays the role of a fictional figure, Jodi Goodwin, an elite undercover investigator who puts her children to bed then dashes across the garden into her home-office, jumps online and infiltrates angry incel forums and misogynistic hate groups to detect and stop domestic terrorists before they act. Men whose hate speech morphs into real-life violence and white supremacist types who preach male supremacy and idolise leaders like Donald Trump. The “savant” reference comes from her character’s extraordinary ability to not only feel something is off but also recall details.
Jessica Chastain wears a Carolina Herrera dress; Damiani rings and bracelets. Hair Ryan Trygstad. Makeup Kristofer Buckle.
“The story was sent to my producing partner [Kelly Carmichael, at Chastain’s Freckle Films production company], and I was really blown away by this woman. I didn’t realise that jobs like this existed,” she concedes. “This is what fascinates me: stories of women doing incredible things.” Filmed during the first six months of 2024, she admits the responsibility of bringing storylines like these to life can weigh heavily at times. “Every day we were shooting, [the crew] were like, ‘Can you believe how timely all this is?’ And I hate that it still captures everything we are reading about in the news now,” she adds, referencing the recent politically motivated shooting of two senior Democratic Minnesota state lawmakers and their spouses in their homes in June, which resulted in two fatalities.
To prepare and research online hate, Chastain didn’t need to go far. “You just pick up your phone and see it everywhere,” she says with a sigh. “It wasn’t necessary for me to spend time looking at racist and sexist images. For me, it was more about filling in who this woman was, where she came from and how she navigates the world.” One unconventional technique Chastain leans on when developing a character is choosing a perfume for them. “I tend to connect with scent on an emotional level – I’m very sensitive to smell,” she says. “For this character, I knew she’d wear something like grapefruit. It had to smell clean, fresh, but also have a tinge of bitterness. I wanted it to be something she could afford, [so I chose] Hesperides Grapefruit by Fresh.” She also has another series in the works for Apple TV+, The Dealer, where she will play an ambitious gallerist alongside Adam Driver as her most gifted artist. Its backdrop: the contemporary art scene. “I haven’t started working on it yet, but that will need a scent that says Downtown-money-cool-New York City vibes,” she muses. “Something Calvin perhaps?”
Jessica
Chastain’s made playing strong-willed women “her thing”, perhaps most famously in The Eyes of Tammy Faye, winning the Best Actress Oscar in 2022 for her portrayal of the late televangelist Tammy Bakker. “I’d worked on that for nearly 10 years by the time that came out,” she explains, having first acquired the rights to the story in 2012. “In this industry, you can’t sit around thinking you have to wait until someone offers you something. Here’s the golden ticket! Here’s the script you’ve been waiting for! Women should be as involved in their careers as they can be. The more we push, the more it becomes possible. I’ve seen a huge difference in our industry since the #MeToo movement and Time’s Up.”
There’s an astounding breadth to Chastain’s range. Recently, she’s taken astutely chosen roles in HBO’s matrimony-turmoil miniseries Scenes from a Marriage (2021), the psychological thriller Mothers’ Instinct (2024), and the toxic love story Dreams (2025), which delves into the dark side of philanthropy. They are female characters who all share one commonality: making missteps. “I don’t want to just play a hero,” says Chastain. “I want to play someone who could be villainous, someone who can make huge mistakes, because men have played that forever. Women have been stuck playing the mother, the wife, the femme fatale – stuck in these little boxes of stereotypes – instead of playing real human beings.”
Producing wasn’t something Chastain intentionally set out to tick off the list. But, like acting, she made it happen. She and her four siblings were raised by their single mother in California. Chastain attended a local performing arts high school, harbouring dreams of working in theatre and spouting Shakespeare. After starring in a Romeo & Juliet production, her “Romeo” was accepted into New York’s Juilliard School, which inspired her to also apply. Successful, she began in 1999 and her four-year degree was funded by a job at the famous school and its Robin Williams scholarship. “I never imagined that producing could be something in my future,” she says, adding that she was the first in her family to attend college and didn’t have any creative influences around her while growing up. “I remember as a kid seeing Sigourney Weaver in Aliens, thinking, ‘Wow, I want to be her when I grow up.’ That was about it.”
Dabbling in theatre and television – including Law & Order – it wasn’t until age 31 that she moved into film. In 2011, she had six movie releases, receiving a 2012 Oscar nomination for The Help, and another the following year for the Kathryn Bigelow thriller Zero Dark Thirty.
And I’m guessing fashion too. Forming a steadfast relationship with renowned stylist Elizabeth Stewart has made her one of the best-dressed on the red carpet. And it’s clear she loves this part of the job, flitting between Old Hollywood jewel-toned satin gowns, edgy suiting and Disney princess-like tulle concoctions. “Connecting with Elizabeth has taught me about design and art in the fashion world,” she admits. “Of course I coveted fashion, but I’d never come close to that kind of artistry before. Elizabeth has been hugely important in my evolution. Fashion is so much more than pretty wrapping paper. For me, it’s like going to an art gallery. It’s walkable art.”
You’ll often find Chastain front-row at fashion shows. (Some trivia: she met her husband, Moncler executive Gian Luca Passi de Preposulo, at an Armani event in 2012, with the couple marrying in 2017, and going on to have two children.) Forming close ties to Riccardo Tisci during his Givenchy era (“I learnt so much from going to his shows”) and Gucci’s Alessandro Michele and Sabato De Sarno (“I’m so excited for Gucci’s next chapter – the whimsy, the colour, the glamour”), it’s the conversation she has with these creatives that energises her. “I want my fashion to have substance. There’s so much excess these days,” she says. “Just like my work is a political act, designers’ work can also be a political act in some sense. I’m fascinated by so much more than just acting.”
Jessica Chastain wears Damiani earrings, bracelets and rings.
“Women should be as involved in their careers as they can be. The more we push, the more it becomes possible. I’ve seen a huge difference in our industry since the #MeToo movement”
She’s also highly vocal about her personal beliefs and not afraid to speak out on difficult issues, such as gender inequality, racial justice and Trump’s aggressive policies. “I’m not one to shy away from a political film,” she says. “All my work is a political act in some sense. I want my work to pose questions, to force people to converse and move out of whatever bubble they feel comfortable in. Whether it’s a conversation in a classroom or a dinner table, there needs to be a 10 per cent chance you’re going to be personally offended.” This isn’t rudeness or disrespect, she adds. “The problem we’re having right now is everyone’s afraid of saying the wrong things.”
She’s personally “moved out of the bubble” by removing all social-media apps from her phone. “I was in this weird cycle where I was using social media for news. That’s not news,” she explains. “I take the subway everywhere in New York, so I’d get out my phone, go on my socials and my feed was just this barrage of violent videos and horrifying situations I never asked to see. That’s not my algorithm! My algorithm is cute dogs, gender equality and vegan recipes.”
Left: Damiani necklace. Right: Chloé dress and shoes, both POA; Damiani earrings, necklaces and rings.
Emporio Armani blazer and pants, both POA; Damiani necklaces.
Gucci jacket, $12,700, top, $900, and jeans, POA; Damiani necklace and rings.
Carolina Herrera dress, POA; Damiani earrings, rings and bracelets.
This is why Chastain has headed back to school, recently enrolling in a two-year full-time Master in Public Administration course at Harvard. “I’m taking economics and quantitative theory,” she says levelly, unblinking. An admission that makes me wonder: isn’t she insanely exhausted? “I feel like a [broken] record saying the same thing over and over again,” she explains. “But constantly learning and going back to school genuinely excites me. I just want the fullest life I can live.” A bit like that sumptuous wallpaper.
The day before marie claire’s October issue hit newsstands, with the effervescent and brilliant Jessica Chastain on the cover, news came in that the series she was promoting, The Savant, had been postponed indefinitely.
Occasionally in magazine land, these things happen: book launches are moved, film releases are pushed back, musicians cancel tours. Every time an issue goes to print, editors hold their breath and cross their fingers, hoping nothing drastic happens to render the past month’s hard work irrelevant. At best, there’s just a typo - at worst, we seem a bit dated. It’s never really that big of a deal.
But this announcement hit different. This was not simply a streaming platform deciding not to continue with a series for some vague reason known only to network executives. This was a streaming platform seeming to crumble under the potential pressure of censorship during a progressively authoritarian Trump administration.
Why? Because The Savant is about online hate groups, domestic terrorism and deadly shootings in the States. And because Charlie Kirk, the 31-year-old right-wing agitator (to put it lightly), was shot and killed by another American citizen while speaking at a college event in Utah little more than two weeks before the series was originally slated for release on Apple TV+. And presumably because ABC and Disney took Jimmy Kimmel Live! off the air a week after Kirk’s death, ostensibly because of poor ratings but really because the Trump administration didn’t like comments Kimmel made about Kirk’s killer.
In the eight-part series The Savant, Chastain plays a woman who infiltrates online hate groups in an attempt to prevent acts of white supremacist extremism. It’s based on the true story of a group of women who did just that - immersed themselves in a world predominantly made up of white men who believe America is theirs. They talk among themselves about causing harm to “others” who they don’t feel are worthy of being in “their” America. Misogyny, xenophobia, bigotry - the sharpest three prongs of hatred - are all here.
You’ll read in our interview a quote from Chastain about a conversation she repeatedly had on set with the crew: “Every day we were shooting, [the crew] were like, ‘Can you believe how timely all this is?’ And I hate that it still captures everything we are reading about in the news now,” she says. Chastain is referring to the politically motivated assassinations of Melissa Hortman, a Democratic politician, and her husband, Mark, in their home in June. That same day, state senator John Hoffman and his wife, Yvette, were also shot at home, but survived.
And so, apparently, The Savant is too relevant. “After careful consideration, we have made the decision to postpone The Savant,” an Apple TV+ spokesperson said in a statement. “We appreciate your understanding and look forward to releasing the series at a future date.”
We’re disappointed in the decision to postpone the release of The Savant: we believe the series is exactly the kind of show America - and the world - needs right now. Sunlight is the best disinfectant, after all.
While Apple TV+ has not elaborated on the decision and has not said it was due to any threat from the administration, it’s easy to colour in the blankness of its statement with theories about censorship, freedom of speech and the ramping up of culture wars where the only winner is a president who wants to be king.
Chastain also released a statement following the announcement. “[Apple and I] were not aligned on the decision to pause the release of The Savant,” she wrote on social media, going on to list several horrific acts of violence that have been committed in the five years since she started making the show. “I’ve never shied away from difficult subjects, and while I wish this show wasn’t so relevant, unfortunately it is. The Savant is about the heroes who work every day to stop violence before it happens, and honoring their courage feels more urgent than ever.”
Jessica Chastain holds up a mirror to society, and it’s important that it’s not shattered. So please, read on and enjoy a conversation with one of the finest actors of our time about - yes, online hatred and misogyny - but also so much more than that.
- marie claire
It’s 3pm on a Friday, and Jessica Chastain is perched on a sage-green velvet sofa in her sprawling Victorian-era apartment in midtown Manhattan, comparing herself to the wallpaper behind her.