THE DEBT interview with JESSICA CHASTAIN

COVERED BY: BRENDA MEYER

LISTEN TO INTERVIEW

On making the film:
Oh my gosh, I was so tired filming this movie. Actually, you know, filming the movie was easier emotionally for me than the research before because, for months before, I was doing krav maga, I was taking a beginner's course in German, I had accent coaches, and then, on top of that, I was reading about medical experiments during the Holocaust, which I didn't know much about. It's like all the specifics about what that was. I read all about (infamous Nazi doctor) Mengele and I read about the Mossad - how they came to be and different missions that they'd been through. So there were a few months there, and it was right around Christmas time - we started filming in February, I think - that my family was like, what is going on with you, I was so depressed from watching all these documentaries and all the reading. But once I got to set, it's like I could throw all that away because it was still in me, and I could just play what the scenes were. And of course, I was exhausted filming. But thank goodness, I had such good relationships with Sam and Marton and Jesper. We laughed so much, and every time Jesper was incredibly funny or kind or sweet, I was like, don't be like that, you're making it so hard.

What she learned from working so closely with Helen Mirren:
She was really generous with me. We met in London first, with all the heads of the department - hair and makeup and costumes - to try and get a sense of what that was, and then we met at her place here in Los Angeles and started talking about the back story for Rachel and perhaps what her gestures would be, if we could have similar ways of moving. To me, I was really impressed by her attention to detail, but of course, she comes from the theatre. I also read her book and I watched all of her YouTube interviews, and she started with the Royal Shakespeare Company when she was really young, and she's always going back to theatre. She's one of my idols. I could only hope to have the kind of career that Helen's forged for herself. She gave me the confidence to continue with my research, and all of that stuff I was trained when doing theatre - sometimes you come to a movie and you meet a big star and they don't really do that and you're all hmmm. But Helen's really, really involved. What I really kind of impressed with at first, when I found out I was playing the same role as her, is oh gosh, how am I going to do this. Because she's one of a kind and a force to be reckoned with, how am I possibly...everyone's going to be all... There was so much anxiety of how to connect to this woman. And I found this great interview on YouTube when she was my age and you actually see her in her youth and she doesn't have the confidence and the power - of course, she's always been a powerful woman - but her voice was a little higher, you could see the youth in her, and so it made sense then. I don't need to do an impersonation of Helen Mirren as Rachel at 25. I saw this interview, and it really opened the doors for me and I thought, I know where Rachel ends up, so Rachel in her youth is more unsure, as I am, as I think we all are in our youth. We don't necessarily know our footing.

What sorts of things did you and Helen discuss?
Well, it was very important for us to know what happened to [Rachel's] family. Why did we choose Mossad, what happened, how our parents were killed, and that's we talked about together. But then, there's something that I found very interesting in reading the script - there's a moment in the script and it's just a moment, where my character is sitting in front of a group and someone asks her the question, what were you thinking at that time during that, and she says, I was thinking about my mother. And then, thirty years later, Rachel's giving the same lecture and they say, what were you thinking and she says, I was thinking of my mother. And Helen said to me, you know this reminds me of sometimes when people ask you the same question over and over again [in interviews], so there's like a story you tell. And so we decided that Rachel absolutely is not being true to who she is when answering that question, because it's all a lie. She's created this story. So in the film, both of us, when we answer the question and say, I was thinking of my mother, we both take our right hand and touch our chest. So it's like this role, this part she's been playing over and over again. And we've done little things like that sprinkled throughout the film that I don't know if anyone watching the film would even see. Like, we talked about how Rachel might hold herself when she's comforting herself and it was a lot like hugging yourself - there wasn't this feeling of...not this openness, but this kind of closing yourself off, especially if it's a woman being invaded by a man she believes is the representation of the destruction of her entire family and her country. So we decided on certain gestures I might do that Helen could pepper throughout.

Why Jessica won't talk about what Rachel's past might've been:
As an actor, I like to have a lot of secrets, and that's one of them. But, I got the story from a book I read where this one girl had a memory when she was a child seeing something with her family, and it was so descriptive in the book, and because it was a real story of something that happened, it was incredibly powerful. But, because of that and because it's a real story, I don't want to say that I used it because if this person reads an article and says she used my personal memory. But I try to find, in any part I play, I try to connect it to something real.

On shooting the house scenes in order and if that was like being back in theatre:
It was great. I love working where it is like theatre. But it also felt like rats stuck in this little box, which I think you can see in the film. Like, these people just look like they cannot...like they just want to get out of this room. And the way that John filmed it - we did all of that in sequence all on the sound stage - so when Rachel's all, I need to get out of this house, I really felt like I needed to get out of the house, I needed sunlight, I needed to be somewhere else. And John - the wonderful thing about him...he was a teacher at Yale for drama, he really is a great teacher and he has a connection to theatre and film, he's a wonderful director...and he was really good at creating an environment, but not imposing himself on you. Like, sometimes a director can impose an idea on you that isn't natural. But what he does is really smart. He puts the people in the room and creates it, then he's able to slowly, subtly guide it. But he doesn't direct with an iron fist.

On the fact that she's worked with Sam Worthington twice now:
I love working with Sam. I knew - we had a dinner about a month before we started shooting - and always get nervous as an actor, like okay, I'm going to be filming a love triangle and I'm going to meet these guys and you don't know if it's going to work, so I was really nervous, and the car comes to put us up...and I think the dinner was at John's house, and they were really sly with how they set up the dinner. They sat me between Sam and Marton and by the end of the night, we got along really incredibly well. I guess, as an actor, you're worried that you really won't like the person that you're gonna have to act with, but immediately I knew, this was golden. I really liked these guys. Sam helped me so much with the action stuff - I'd taken months of krav maga training before I got there, but running and jumping into a moving van and how to hold a gun at angle that's good for the camera...all of that stuff I didn't know. Sam actually nicknamed me Tommy Cruise on set because he said that I had a run that rivaled Tom Cruise's run. You know how when you see Tom running, he pumps his arms - there's a shot of me running in the post office sequence where I'm behind the van and I'm pumping the arms and we were watching the playback and Sam was all, you're Tommy Cruise now. But Sam and I joke that we have a three picture deal (with each other), so when The Texas Killing Fields came and was done and now, it would only be one more picture, so I think I might have to up it to a five picture deal because I really, really like him. And hopefully we'll both have long careers, so we need more than one more film together.

On auditioning for the part and how she got it:
I fought like crazy for the part. I'd just finished Tree of Life, which was so traumatic, because I'd gotten very close to those three little boys (who play her sons), and when we finished...and it was all about me making sure that they were going to be okay. And then I said goodbye to the kids and I lost it. They went back to their mothers and I went back to being childless, like I just realized, oh, I don't really have kids. (laughs) So it was really traumatic, and I immediately flew to Paris - I thought, I need to do something - so I took a French course for three weeks to kind of be in a different environment to shake up the Tree of Life exit in my head. And on the way back, I stopped in London and got sent a script for The Debt and it was amazing and I got a meeting with John Madden. And that's how it started - from the moment I read the script, I thought, this is the kind of film I want to be involved in. To me, it had the dramatic elements that I really respond to as an audience member. My favorite film is The English Patient - and I know this isn't The English Patient, but it has...I love the love triangle from The English Patient and I love the sadness that you don't end up with the one you love... And I love that kind of doomed romantic element and I loved that in the script (for The Debt), I was really, really moved by it. So that connected me, but also this was another way where I could play a woman that I am different from, and I was really excited about that. So, my first meeting, I met with John in London on my way back from Paris and I knew that Helen was probably going to play Rachel and so I went on and on, like, I really love the script... It's like I was interviewing, I was all, I'm the kind of actor that really researches, I'll take krav maga, I'll take German, I do a lot of accents, I went to Julliard and oh, by the way, Helen Mirren is 5'4" and I'm 5'4", it's perfect. Then I had a screen test in Los Angeles a month later, and there was a bit of a waiting process, but when I got it, I was very happy. I've been really lucky, because I know Al Pacino called Terrance Malick when I was up for Tree of Life and I know that John called Terry when I was up for The Debt and then I also know that Terry had a conversation with Steven Spielberg when I was up for The Help, so I have such love and I am such a fan of directors and I do feel like we're a team and it's nice to know that your work begets work.

On having so many films out this year and if she's recognized:
It's a very strange thing. I was recognized once for Tree of Life. I was at a restaurant, and it's a restaurant that I go to all the time - and someone that works there that I'd known comes up to me - and they'd known me for years, but probably didn't even know I was an actor - and goes, were you in the Tree of Life and I go yeah, and they were all, I thought so, I saw it last weekend and I thought so, but I wasn't sure. So I'm getting that a lot, but I'm not really getting recognized. I think, if I'm at a function where there are a lot of people in the business...(recently) I was at one and my mom actually said that when we came in, a couple of people pointed, which I've never had that before, but that's all it's been so far. It's a little nerve-wracking when someone points at you, because you're like what's wrong, is everything okay. But it's wonderful when people recognize you for your work and are complimentary about it. It's scary to think that...I don't want it to get in the way of me disappearing into my roles. And I don't imagine I'm going to get recognized for The Help. I think it'll be a case of, oh I loved The Help and I also loved Twilight and Spiderman, and you go, thanks, but that's not me. I could be wrong, I could be completely in denial.

On working with Ralph Fiennes for Coriolanus since she's such a huge fan of The English Patient:
Oh my God, you have no idea, I was all, I'm playing Ralph Fiennes' wife!





				THE DEBT Interviews Jessica Chastain COVERED BY: BRENDA MEYER LISTEN TO INTERVIEW On making the film: Oh my gosh, I was so tired filming this movie. Actually, you know, filming the movie was easier emotionally for me than the research before because, for months before, I was doing krav maga, I was taking a beginner's course in German, I had accent coaches, and then, on top of that, I was reading about medical experiments during the Holocaust, which I didn't know much about. It's like all the specifics about what that was. I read all about (infamous Nazi doctor) Mengele and I read about the Mossad - how they came to be and different missions that they'd been through. So there were a few months there, and it was right around Christmas time - we started filming in February, I think - that my family was like, what is going on with you, I was so depressed from watching all these documentaries and all the reading. But once I got to set, it's like I could throw all that away because it was still in me, and I could just play what the scenes were. And of course, I was exhausted filming. But thank goodness, I had such good relationships with Sam and Marton and Jesper. We laughed so much, and every time Jesper was incredibly funny or kind or sweet, I was like, don't be like that, you're making it so hard. What she learned from working so closely with Helen Mirren: She was really generous with me. We met in London first, with all the heads of the department - hair and makeup and costumes - to try and get a sense of what that was, and then we met at her place here in Los Angeles and started talking about the back story for Rachel and perhaps what her gestures would be, if we could have similar ways of moving. To me, I was really impressed by her attention to detail, but of course, she comes from the theatre. I also read her book and I watched all of her YouTube interviews, and she started with the Royal Shakespeare Company when she was really young, and she's always going back to theatre. She's one of my idols. I could only hope to have the kind of career that Helen's forged for herself. She gave me the confidence to continue with my research, and all of that stuff I was trained when doing theatre - sometimes you come to a movie and you meet a big star and they don't really do that and you're all hmmm. But Helen's really, really involved. What I really kind of impressed with at first, when I found out I was playing the same role as her, is oh gosh, how am I going to do this. Because she's one of a kind and a force to be reckoned with, how am I possibly...everyone's going to be all... There was so much anxiety of how to connect to this woman. And I found this great interview on YouTube when she was my age and you actually see her in her youth and she doesn't have the confidence and the power - of course, she's always been a powerful woman - but her voice was a little higher, you could see the youth in her, and so it made sense then. I don't need to do an impersonation of Helen Mirren as Rachel at 25. I saw this interview, and it really opened the doors for me and I thought, I know where Rachel ends up, so Rachel in her youth is more unsure, as I am, as I think we all are in our youth. We don't necessarily know our footing. What sorts of things did you and Helen discuss? Well, it was very important for us to know what happened to [Rachel's] family. Why did we choose Mossad, what happened, how our parents were killed, and that's we talked about together. But then, there's something that I found very interesting in reading the script - there's a moment in the script and it's just a moment, where my character is sitting in front of a group and someone asks her the question, what were you thinking at that time during that, and she says, I was thinking about my mother. And then, thirty years later, Rachel's giving the same lecture and they say, what were you thinking and she says, I was thinking of my mother. And Helen said to me, you know this reminds me of sometimes when people ask you the same question over and over again [in interviews], so there's like a story you tell. And so we decided that Rachel absolutely is not being true to who she is when answering that question, because it's all a lie. She's created this story. So in the film, both of us, when we answer the question and say, I was thinking of my mother, we both take our right hand and touch our chest. So it's like this role, this part she's been playing over and over again. And we've done little things like that sprinkled throughout the film that I don't know if anyone watching the film would even see. Like, we talked about how Rachel might hold herself when she's comforting herself and it was a lot like hugging yourself - there wasn't this feeling of...not this openness, but this kind of closing yourself off, especially if it's a woman being invaded by a man she believes is the representation of the destruction of her entire family and her country. So we decided on certain gestures I might do that Helen could pepper throughout. Why Jessica won't talk about what Rachel's past might've been: As an actor, I like to have a lot of secrets, and that's one of them. But, I got the story from a book I read where this one girl had a memory when she was a child seeing something with her family, and it was so descriptive in the book, and because it was a real story of something that happened, it was incredibly powerful. But, because of that and because it's a real story, I don't want to say that I used it because if this person reads an article and says she used my personal memory. But I try to find, in any part I play, I try to connect it to something real. On shooting the house scenes in order and if that was like being back in theatre: It was great. I love working where it is like theatre. But it also felt like rats stuck in this little box, which I think you can see in the film. Like, these people just look like they cannot...like they just want to get out of this room. And the way that John filmed it - we did all of that in sequence all on the sound stage - so when Rachel's all, I need to get out of this house, I really felt like I needed to get out of the house, I needed sunlight, I needed to be somewhere else. And John - the wonderful thing about him...he was a teacher at Yale for drama, he really is a great teacher and he has a connection to theatre and film, he's a wonderful director...and he was really good at creating an environment, but not imposing himself on you. Like, sometimes a director can impose an idea on you that isn't natural. But what he does is really smart. He puts the people in the room and creates it, then he's able to slowly, subtly guide it. But he doesn't direct with an iron fist. On the fact that she's worked with Sam Worthington twice now: I love working with Sam. I knew - we had a dinner about a month before we started shooting - and always get nervous as an actor, like okay, I'm going to be filming a love triangle and I'm going to meet these guys and you don't know if it's going to work, so I was really nervous, and the car comes to put us up...and I think the dinner was at John's house, and they were really sly with how they set up the dinner. They sat me between Sam and Marton and by the end of the night, we got along really incredibly well. I guess, as an actor, you're worried that you really won't like the person that you're gonna have to act with, but immediately I knew, this was golden. I really liked these guys. Sam helped me so much with the action stuff - I'd taken months of krav maga training before I got there, but running and jumping into a moving van and how to hold a gun at angle that's good for the camera...all of that stuff I didn't know. Sam actually nicknamed me Tommy Cruise on set because he said that I had a run that rivaled Tom Cruise's run. You know how when you see Tom running, he pumps his arms - there's a shot of me running in the post office sequence where I'm behind the van and I'm pumping the arms and we were watching the playback and Sam was all, you're Tommy Cruise now. But Sam and I joke that we have a three picture deal (with each other), so when The Texas Killing Fields came and was done and now, it would only be one more picture, so I think I might have to up it to a five picture deal because I really, really like him. And hopefully we'll both have long careers, so we need more than one more film together. On auditioning for the part and how she got it: I fought like crazy for the part. I'd just finished Tree of Life, which was so traumatic, because I'd gotten very close to those three little boys (who play her sons), and when we finished...and it was all about me making sure that they were going to be okay. And then I said goodbye to the kids and I lost it. They went back to their mothers and I went back to being childless, like I just realized, oh, I don't really have kids. (laughs) So it was really traumatic, and I immediately flew to Paris - I thought, I need to do something - so I took a French course for three weeks to kind of be in a different environment to shake up the Tree of Life exit in my head. And on the way back, I stopped in London and got sent a script for The Debt and it was amazing and I got a meeting with John Madden. And that's how it started - from the moment I read the script, I thought, this is the kind of film I want to be involved in. To me, it had the dramatic elements that I really respond to as an audience member. My favorite film is The English Patient - and I know this isn't The English Patient, but it has...I love the love triangle from The English Patient and I love the sadness that you don't end up with the one you love... And I love that kind of doomed romantic element and I loved that in the script (for The Debt), I was really, really moved by it. So that connected me, but also this was another way where I could play a woman that I am different from, and I was really excited about that. So, my first meeting, I met with John in London on my way back from Paris and I knew that Helen was probably going to play Rachel and so I went on and on, like, I really love the script... It's like I was interviewing, I was all, I'm the kind of actor that really researches, I'll take krav maga, I'll take German, I do a lot of accents, I went to Julliard and oh, by the way, Helen Mirren is 5'4" and I'm 5'4", it's perfect. Then I had a screen test in Los Angeles a month later, and there was a bit of a waiting process, but when I got it, I was very happy. I've been really lucky, because I know Al Pacino called Terrance Malick when I was up for Tree of Life and I know that John called Terry when I was up for The Debt and then I also know that Terry had a conversation with Steven Spielberg when I was up for The Help, so I have such love and I am such a fan of directors and I do feel like we're a team and it's nice to know that your work begets work. On having so many films out this year and if she's recognized: It's a very strange thing. I was recognized once for Tree of Life. I was at a restaurant, and it's a restaurant that I go to all the time - and someone that works there that I'd known comes up to me - and they'd known me for years, but probably didn't even know I was an actor - and goes, were you in the Tree of Life and I go yeah, and they were all, I thought so, I saw it last weekend and I thought so, but I wasn't sure. So I'm getting that a lot, but I'm not really getting recognized. I think, if I'm at a function where there are a lot of people in the business...(recently) I was at one and my mom actually said that when we came in, a couple of people pointed, which I've never had that before, but that's all it's been so far. It's a little nerve-wracking when someone points at you, because you're like what's wrong, is everything okay. But it's wonderful when people recognize you for your work and are complimentary about it. It's scary to think that...I don't want it to get in the way of me disappearing into my roles. And I don't imagine I'm going to get recognized for The Help. I think it'll be a case of, oh I loved The Help and I also loved Twilight and Spiderman, and you go, thanks, but that's not me. I could be wrong, I could be completely in denial. *On working with Ralph Fiennes for Coriolanus* since she's such a huge fan of The English Patient:** Oh my God, you have no idea, I was all, I'm playing Ralph Fiennes' wife!


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