STACK Magazine April 2015 Issue 126

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with JESSICA CHASTAIN
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There’s a lot that’s going on
in this movie. In one sentence
can you describe the story?
JESSICA CHASTAIN: Yes. In
one sentence. It is a thrilling film
about space exploration, but at its core
it’s about the powerful bonds of love.
Excellent.Very good summary.Tell me
about your character.
Well I’m playing Professor Brands’ protégé,
a fellow astrophysicist. I’m dealing with the
agricultural crisis on Earth, and she was hurt
really badly when she was a child emotionally.
She stopped maturing from that point on.
And when we meet her in the film, she’s
hiding behind science. She’s
hiding behind numbers. That’s
becoming her obsession. Until
she, through science, learns that
actually love never goes away.
Tell us about working with director
Christopher Nolan.
I’d always been a huge fan of his. I still
get a little shy around Chris to be honest.
He moves very quickly. He’s very funny. Like
he’ll say a joke when you least expect it. We
finished [shooting] two weeks [early].
Really?
Yeah, which is, I hear, kind of strange for
a big budget film. Also he’s very great with
expanding the characters like emotionally. He
would leave me alone. I’d do three or four
takes, and then some days he’d come up to
me, give me a quick little word, or just the
tiniest little adjustment that would open my
character up in a new way. And I thought, “I
love working with people like that who are so
intuitive and precise.”
He’s known for working with practical sets,
no green screen or any of that. So can you
talk a little bit about what that was like?
I’m thinking specifically of the dust storms.
It was real dust they were chucking in my
face. (Laughs)
How was it to film that kind of scene?
Listen, it’s not fun. Like when you’re at
home that night trying to get the dust out
of your ears and like even a month later,
you’re like, “Wow. I still have dust all over me
coming out of my pores.” It’s not fun while
it’s happening, but actually it’s normal for my
character. So it just became a normality for
me. (Laughs)
Do you enjoy that?That you actually have
all the tactile things there?
Yes. I prefer practical sets. I prefer tangible
things that I can touch and feel and respond
to. I’d rather just concentrate on talking to
my fellow actor as a character. I’m very much
a reactive actor, and that’s why so much of
my performance depends on who I’m acting
with because I take what they’re giving me,
and I respond to it. I’m like that with my
environment too. I’m going to react to what’s
happening around me.
Was it hard to wrap your head around
some of the science that’s in the movie
and to be able to communicate it
effectively for the audience? And then
doing that with Michael Caine, does that
add a layer of excitement?
It was a dream come true to work with
Michael Caine. I just think he’s incredible. He’s
a legend of cinema. I’m always trying to get
some time with the legends and learn what
I can from them. As far as it goes like with
the science, I didn’t stress too much about
forcing myself to understand the theory of
relativity, or these concepts that people spend
a life’s work working on. Kip Thorne -- he’s
our executive producer, and he’s a leading
theoretical physicist. He was on set and I
got to talk with him, and he explained some
concepts to me. I made sure that everything
my character talks about, I understood,
because that’s what you have to do as an
actor. But I gave myself permission to know
that I can’t be method with this role, I have
to act a lot of it because she spent 20 years
preparing for what she’s doing.