If acting is a portal to self-discovery, it’s also what makes Chastain feel free. She has known since she was a young girl that it was what she wanted to do, and was single-minded in her pursuit. She came from a family without much money – her mother was a vegan chef and her stepfather a firefighter – and she was able to attend Juilliard thanks to a scholarship funded by the late Robin Williams (he ‘changed my life’, she said on Facebook). ‘I don’t know what I’d do if I wasn’t acting. It doesn’t mean I have to be in movies or have success... I was an actor in community theatre in northern California and I was very happy.’ I believe her. If all the fanfare, great parts and magazine covers fell away tomorrow, there’s no doubt that Chastain would contentedly throw herself into whatever she could find, any play, any character, anywhere. For her, it’s oxygen. ‘I don’t know what I’d do if I didn’t have this form of expression because it offers me a freedom I don’t have in my personal life.’ In her personal life, she cowers at the thought of a party, questions her every move. On-screen, she discovers parts of herself she never even knew were there. And so she works, and works, and works. She smiles. ‘It’s a beautiful prison I’ve created for myself.’
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