Jessica Chastain feared for Oscar Isaac friendship after Scenes from a Marriage
Jessica Chastain worried ‘Scenes from a Marriage’ would ruin her friendship with Oscar Isaac.
The pair studied at Julliard together and went on to be in ‘A Most Violent Year’ before reuniting for the miniseries, and although the “innate trust” they have built over the years helped their on-screen relationship, things also got “very painful” for the pair.
She explained: “We’ve known each other more than half of our lives. There’s an innate trust there.
“But also a sense that when you know someone that well, it’s like you can read their mind. Which is so exposing.
“Working on ‘Scenes From a Marriage’, there were certain parts of the scripts that really affected me when I think about past relationships, when I think about growing up or parts of being a woman. It affected me quite deeply.
“And Oscar could always see when I was off-balance from something. And when you’re acting with someone, and you want to make them laugh and you have a history together, you know how to do it, right?
“And if you want to really hurt them, you know how to do it. So it was a very painful experience for us.
“I would come home from work and say to my husband, ‘I don’t know if I could be friends with Oscar after this.’
“Because it got quite brutal between us, and very painful on set. We were so committed to the characters, and also because we could see into each other.”
At the end of filming, Jessica Chastain received a touching gift from her friend.
She said: “As a goodbye, we gave each other gifts at the end. He gave me a little necklace with a tuning fork, because someone told me if a guitar is tuned to ‘G’ and if you’re on stage and you play a ‘G’ on a piano, the guitar will vibrate because it’s tuned to the same note.
“They said, ‘You guys are tuned to the same note when you act together. So that’s why you can feel each other’s thoughts.’
“And so he gave me a tuning fork at the end.
“It’s a very special friendship, a very special work relationship, because we absolutely bring out the best in each other.”
Oscar isn’t the only star the ‘Tree of Life’ actress has a special working relationship with.
She added to Total Film magazine: “And in a very similar way, James McAvoy, I also have that with. And Michael Shannon You know, there are certain people you kind of meet and work with and you feel like you’ve known each other for a very, very long time.”
