On THR’s Actress Roundtable, Jessica Chastain, Kirsten Dunst, Jennifer Hudson, Emilia Jones, Kristen Stewart and Tessa Thompson commiserated about overlooked labors of love, the degree to which fear drives their decisions and navigating COVID-19 on-set
We are sitting down at a time when you’re each receiving widespread acclaim for your work, a time that must feel like a professional high point for each of you. Meanwhile, many tuning in to this conversation dream of a moment like this but feel it’s very far away. What, for each of you, was the moment when this seemed furthest away? And did you ever consider not continuing down this path?No, because I grew up very poor.
Speaking of somebody else having confidence in you to do something that perhaps you yourself might need some convincing about, Kristen, you’ve talked about Pablo Larraín reaching out and saying, “I see you as Princess Diana,” and how that was not as obvious to you.Yeah. I mean, his confidence was contagious and reassuring — but then as soon as I wasn’t on the phone with him and had five minutes to sit in my room alone, I was like, “I don’t know …” I hadn’t read the script yet.
Several of you are portraying real people, some of whom died in the past few years or decades. How did you calculate whether to reach out to their survivors? Jessica, Tammy Faye is no longer with us. Her husband Jim is, but I don’t know where …I reached out to her children, who are incredible and continue her legacy. Her daughter sings her mom’s song in our credits. And her son started his own church, Revolution Church, and officiates gay weddings — he’s incredible.
Tessa, you’ve also talked about the challenge of playing a character who has a lot of pent-up feelings and doesn’t get to have a release.It was pretty uncomfortable. I can relate, hearing you speak, Kirsten, and actually, when I watched your film, I thought about the threads between our characters. Irene [Thompson’s character in] is someone who lives pretty squarely in her head, and her head is a pretty treacherous place, so there’s discomfort with that.