Jessica Chastain felt inspired to act 'really young'
Jessica Chastain has revealed what drew her to the movie industry.
Jessica Chastain dreamed of becoming an actress from the age of seven.
The 48-year-old movie star felt inspired while watching a production of Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat as a child, and Jessica is thrilled that she's managed to fulfil her ambitions.
Speaking to Variety, Jessica shared: "My grandmother took me. It was the first time I realised it was a job that people could have, and after watching it, I was like, ‘Oh, I’m an actor.’"
Jessica was always encouraged to follow her dreams and she admits "that helped a lot".
The actress explained: "I felt it really young.
"Even though I dropped out of high school and went back and got my diploma later on, I was voted ‘Most Talented’ in our yearbook. So very early on, I was getting feedback that it was something I was good at, and that helped a lot."
Jessica believes that Salome, the 2013 drama movie that also starred Al Pacino, was a turning point in her career.
The actress found that her performance in Salome opened up new career opportunities.
She shared: "It’s something I think is really important for actors to learn, and it was such an example in that scenario, that one person’s opinion isn’t everyone else’s.
"All of a sudden, I started from nothing to get leads, and it was because people went to see that play — and they thought I did a good job."
Jessica is now keen to "push people a little bit outside their comfort zone" with her future film projects.
She explained: "There was a few years where I was saying, ‘Please, can we stop saying strong female character?'
"The reality is biologically, women have a stronger threshold of pain than men — they give birth — so all women are strong.
"But I’m excited to play characters that are really complex, where I’m OK if someone leaves my film and goes, ‘I’m not sure I liked it.’ I want to push people a little bit outside their comfort zone."
Meanwhile, Jessica is currently studying for her Master's degree in public administration at Harvard University, having previously graduated from The Juilliard School as an actress.
And Jessica recently joked that she's "got the hots" for statistics.
Explaining why she decided to go back to school, Jessica said on The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon: "I was just wanting to learn new things.
"And you know what? My favourite class ended up being quantitative methods, which is like statistics.
"And at Juilliard, you know, we never ... As theatre nerds we never got to learn stuff like that.
"So I am a secret nerd. I got the hots for, like, scatter graphs and, like, bell curves."
