‘Memory’ Director Was Told Jessica Chastain Would ‘Be a Nightmare’ After Oscar Win: ‘She’s the Opposite’

Jessica Chastain won the Oscar did not go to her head, she says Memory directed by Michel Franco.

The pair recently screened their new drama at the Toronto International Film Festival, where Franco told IndieWire that some in Hollywood suggested Chastain, 46, would be difficult to work with after she won the Oscar for best actress. Tammy Faye’s eyes.

Franco, 44, recalled to the newspaper how he was told that Chastain could “show up and be a nightmare and be a diva” after she won her first Oscar.

“I told them, you don’t even know the half of it. She is the opposite. She will appear satisfied, happy and productive,” said the director. “People are so afraid of actors. I do not know why. The worst way to approach an actor or any person is with fear, and if you’re pointing in the wrong direction, then yes, all your nightmares will come true.”

Chastain added, “Because I’ve done bigger things sometimes and I’ve gotten a lot of attention lately, [there’s been the idea] that I wouldn’t be interested in being on set unannounced.”

“We had an Oscar, and I won it Tammy Fayeand then right after that I showed up on the set to do it Memory. Michel said a lot of people said to him, ‘Oh, Jessica is going to leave your movie because she just won an Oscar,'” Chastain recalled.

Jessica Chastain brought up the idea for a sequel to ‘The Help’ with Octavia Spencer: ‘How amazing would that movie be?’

Peter Sarsgaard (left) and Jessica Chastain (right) in ‘Memory’.

Teorema/High Frequency Entertainment/Screen Capital/MUBI/Case Study Films

Never miss a story — sign up for PEOPLE’s free daily newsletter to stay up-to-date on the best PEOPLE has to offer, from juicy celebrity news to compelling human interest stories.

Chastain added that she doesn’t work on movies “to pamper herself.”

“If I want to pamper myself, I’ll go to the spa. I’m making a movie to work and be creative, and I don’t have to sit in a trailer by myself,” she told IndieWire.

Chastain has managed to appear at recent film festivals and promote Memory amid the ongoing Hollywood actors’ strike because the film is an independent production that received a temporary contract from the Screen Actors Guild.

Jessica Chastain Says Her ‘Tree of Life’ Sons Sent Her Mother’s Day Cards After: ‘I Loved Those Boys’

Jessica Chastain, Michel Franco and Peter Sarsgaard at the premiere of “Memory” during the 2023 Toronto International Film Festival at the Royal Alexandra Theater on September 12, 2023 in Toronto, Ontario.

Matt Winkelmeyer/Getty

Chastain stars with Peter Sarsgaard Memory. The film follows a social worker named Sylvia whose life “falls apart when Saul (Sarsgaard) follows her home from their high school reunion,” according to the film’s official synopsis at the Venice Film Festival.

Before promoting the film in Toronto, Chastain, Sarsgaard and Franco appeared together in Venice, Italy, where the actress continued to show support for SAG-AFTRA’s ongoing strike against the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers (AMPTP).

“Me [actors] They often tell us and remind them how grateful we should be,” Chastain told reporters in Venice. “And that’s an environment that I think has allowed workplace bullying to go unchecked for decades and it’s also an environment that has burdened our union members unfair contracts.”

Categories: Trends
Source: HIS Education