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Tag: Zero Dark Thirty

  • Jessica Chastain Sick of Feud Rumors, Says There’s No Bad Blood Between Her and Jennifer Lawrence

    Jessica Chastain has had enough of the rumor that pits her and Jennifer Lawrence against each other in some sort of feud. She says there is no feud, but the media has fed on the rumor for so long that most believe the two actresses are at each other’s throats.

    During an interview with Haute Living, Jessica Chastain explained how another rumor bothers her, too–the one that claims women don’t work well together.

    “There has been a stigma out there that women don’t work well together. I’ve never seen women like this. I remember growing up hearing this myth, that women fight when they’re together and it’s completely inaccurate. I’ve never seen it,” she said.

    The rumor about Jessica Chastain and Jennifer Lawrence stems from the 2013 Oscars, when Lawrence was nominated for her role in Silver Linings Playbook, and Chastain for hers in Zero Dark Thirty. Jennifer Lawrence won.

    “I know also during Oscar season media, because they were trying to get headlines and get clicks, were trying to fabricate a fake rivalry between Jennifer Lawrence and myself and I immediately came out and said this is a media myth that has to stop,” Jessica Chastain said.

    “The women I know are not like this and I cheer for women to succeed because I know when an actress succeeds that means there’s going to be that many more roles for women because an audience is going to demand it,” she added.

    Jessica Chastain lauded Jennifer Lawrence for her 2015 op-ed titled “Why Do I Make Less Than My Male Co-Stars?”

    “It was incredible. I loved her op-ed…and I was really disappointed after she wrote it that she got criticism,” Chastain said.

    Kudos to Jessica Chastian for wanting to put an end to the rumor of a Jennifer Lawrence feud. The media sensationalizes everything, and for them to pit two women against each other for the sake of a headline is shameful.

  • Jessica Chastain: “Crimson Peak” Actress Incognito, But Not for Halloween

    Jessica Chastain is almost unrecognizable on the November W magazine cover and on the inside spread. The Crimson Peak actress wasn’t simply scouring for Halloween options, but underwent a style transformation that showed off her very diverse personality and range of talents.

    This marked the third time Jessica Chastain covered W, but this cover and spread are unlike anything she’s done before.

    Part of the spread features Jessica Chastain with long, hot-pink hair. In the rest, the star of The Martian sports platinum blonde locks, styled in a pompadour.

    An interview inside W proves that Jessica Chastain’s personality is as adaptable as her appearance. She dishes on a future film role she’d love to score.

    “One of my goals is to play a villain in a Bond film. People ask me if I want to be a Bond girl, and I say, ‘No, I want to be the villain.’ I’m waiting for that call!”

    Besides Crimson Peak and The Martian, Jessica Chastain is known for roles in Interstellar, Zero Dark Thirty, and The Help.

    Would you have readily recognized Jessica Chastain had her name not been on the W magazine cover and within its pages?

    Do these Jessica Chastain shots give you any ideas for Halloween?

  • Jessica Chastain Talks Industry Diversity, Stunned by Racial Remarks

    Jessica Chastain used her moment to shine at the 2015 Critics’ Choice Awards to turn attention toward creating more diversity within the film industry. She accepted the inaugural Most Valuable Player honor, and after thanking those near and dear to her, noted that it was in fact what would have been Martin Luther King, Jr.’s 86th birthday.

    “Today is Martin Luther King Jr.’s birthday, so it got me thinking about our need to build the strength of diversity in our industry, and to stand together against homophobic, sexist, misogynistic, anti-Semitic and racist agendas,” she said. “I’m an optimist and I can’t help but feel hopeful about the future of film, especially looking at all of the beautiful people in this room.”

    “Martin Luther King Jr. said, ‘Our lives begin to end the day we become silent about things that matter,’” she continued.

    Jessica Chastain concluded her talk as simply and directly as it began.

    “And I would like to encourage everyone in this room to please speak up. Thank you.”

    Chastain’s remarks were well received by many, however she has since admitted that she was stunned by some of the reactions to her speech. The Help and Zero Dark Thirty actor even called the criticism “strange.”

    “I’ve had really terrible people who are racists comment on the speech and say really terrible things. I’m understanding that some people in this world, how much hate they can have,” she said during an interview with CBS News.

    On the morning of the day Jessica Chastain accepted her Critics Choice Award, the Oscar nominations were announced in Hollywood. The Academy has since received much criticism for the absence of both black actors and directors in their list of nominees.

    Jessica Chastain admitted that in being part of the film industry, she is also a “part of the problem.” She plans to speak out about it again, and clearly won’t let some of the racial remarks that have stunned her so get in her way. She insists that “we all need to work together to fix it.”

    Do you think Chastain was further incited to speak out about the need for diversity within the film industry because of that morning’s Oscar nominations?

    Kudos to Jessica Chastain for her speech, the incredibly appropriate timing of it–and most of all–for her refusal to back down, even in light of cricticism.

  • Famke Janssen: ‘Taken 3’ Actress Reacts to Russell Crowe Comments

    Famke Janssen: ‘Taken 3’ Actress Reacts to Russell Crowe Comments

    Famke Janssen was at Wednesday’s premiere for Taken 3 when asked about comments recently made by Russell Crowe. Her first reaction was priceless.

    “That’s interesting,” the 50-year-old told reporters on the red carpet.

    “I don’t remember him being female,” she quipped a few seconds later.

    It was during a recent interview that Crowe, who is also 50, said he was “too old” to reprise his Gladiator role. The Oscar winner also noted that his female counterparts should embrace their ages, too, when signing on for films.

    “I think you’ll find that the woman who is saying that [the roles have dried up] is the woman who at 40, 45, 48, still wants to play the ingénue,” Crowe remarked. “And can’t understand why she’s not being cast as the 21-year-old.”

    Janssen further elaborated on Crowe’s remarks.

    “When you compare it to the 1920s and ’30s, it’s a shame what’s happened since then. That was the golden age for women in film,” she said. “They were allowed to be smart, funny, quirky, dramatic, whatever you name it… that’s clearly not the case anymore. If you look per movie the number of male parts and female parts–and I know because I even directed one myself [2011’s Bringing Up Bobby] and put a female [Milla Jovovich] in the lead. It’s really rare [for women to take the lead].”

    “The good news is,” Famke Janssen continued, “it’s changing and it’s changing largely because a lot of the shows… are turning to women for female driven story lines and plots. I think that’s a really great departure from where we were.”

    Janssen wasn’t the only female actor who reacted to Russell Crowe’s recent comments.

    Zero Dark Thirty actress Jessica Chastain said Crowe is “getting his foot stuck in his mouth.”

    Meryl Streep, on the other hand, defended Russell Crowe, saying his words had been misconstrued.

    Even though Fame Janssen gets killed off during Taken 3 (Don’t cry ‘spoiler.’ This is even obvious in the trailer.) there is nothing about her age that says she shouldn’t or couldn’t play her role. She even dished about it at the premiere on Wednesday night.

    “Before I read the script they already told me,” she said. “And I said, ‘How dead?’ And they said, ‘Dead.’ And I said, ‘How quickly?’ So we had a negotiation about it, but somebody had to take the bullet, figuratively speaking, and I took it. I took the high road and said ‘I’ll be the one.’ It’s the third and final installment and I’m thrilled to go to make it a better story line so nobody gets taken.”

    Maybe Russell Crowe will go see Famke Janssen in Taken 3, and perhaps eat a bit of–um, crow?

  • Jessica Chastain: From High School Dropout to Hollywood Royalty

    Jessica Chastain may have dropped out of high school as a teen, but she is certainly showing where her talents lie with two Oscar nominations, a Golden Globe award and much critical acclaim.

    The 37-year-old actress told Entertainment Weekly Thursday that she didn’t graduate from high school. Chastain attended Sacramento’s El Camino Fundamental High School, but never received her diploma.

    “Nobody knows this about me — I dropped out of high school,” Chastain told the magazine. “I was not a hard worker. I was a terrible student.”

    Like so many other artistic types, the A Most Violent Year actress was just biding her time until she found her niche in life, and she sure found her niche.

    The Interstellar actress has starred in a slew of big films, including Zero Dark Thirty, Mama, The Disappearance of Eleanor Rigby, and the upcoming Crimson Peak.

    “Eventually I got my adult diploma, but I did not graduate,” said Chastain, who later attended Juilliard through a scholarship from Robin Williams when she was 22. “It wasn’t that I just dropped out and never went back — at the end of the year I had too many absences to graduate… I would cut school and sit in my car, reading Shakespeare.”

    Chastain, who was nominated for an Oscar for her roles in 2012’s Zero Dark Thirty and 2011’s The Help, said her failure to complete high school did effect her confidence.

    “I thought that I wasn’t an intelligent person because I did so poorly,” she said. “There are kids out there that aren’t doing well in school and I hope they never think it means they’re stupid. It’s all about finding where your interest lies and finding what you’re good at.”

    Yep, it’s all about finding your niche in life.

  • Jessica Chastain Replaced by Rooney Mara in ‘The Secret Scripture’

    Jessica Chastain has apparently dropped out of The Secret Scripture and will be replaced by Rooney Mara.

    Back in March The Irish Independent reported that Jeremy Irons (The Mission, Reversal of Fortune) and Jonathan Rhys Meyers (August Rush, Match Point, The Tudors) were in negotiations to join Chastain and Vanessa Redgrave (As You Like It, Atonement, Julia) in the adaptation of Sebastian Barry’s award-winning novel.

    The project has been in the works for over two years with Chastain signing on about a year ago. Filming was set to occur entirely in Ireland over the summer.

    But on Wednesday Cineuropa reported that Mara, not Chastain, is in contract negotiations to star alongside Irons and Redgrave.

    In other news, filming has been pushed back to autumn 2014 and Jack Reynor (Delivery Man, Glassland, Transformers: Age of Extinction) is also in negotiations to join the cast.

    Published in 2008, The Secret Scripture is the diary of a nearly-100-year-old woman’s extended stay at an Irish psychiatric hospital. The novel made the Man Booker Prize shortlist and won the prestigious Costa Award and James Tait Black Memorial Prize.

    Dublin native Jim Sheridan (Dreamhouse, In the Name of the Father, My Left Foot) is signed on to direct the project. The screenplay was written by the late Johnny Ferguson (Fallout, Gangster No. 1.)

    Chastain has been acting since 2004 but it wasn’t until she appeared in 2011’s The Help that she gained widespread recognition. That role earned her an Academy Award nomination for Best Supporting Actress.

    The following year Chastain’s star rose even higher when she landed the lead role in Zero Dark Thirty. She won the Golden Globe Award for Best Actress and received an Academy Award nomination in the same category.

    She went on to star in the three-film drama series The Disappearance of Eleanor Rigby as well as Mama and Salomé.

    It’s no wonder that Chastain didn’t have time for The Secret Scripture given her upcoming projects. The list includes Blonde, Crimson Peak (with Tom Hiddleston and Mia Wosikowska,) Interstellar (with Anne Hathaway and Matthew McConaughey,) Miss Julie (with Colin Farrell and Samantha Morton,) A Most Violent Year, and The Zookeeper’s Wife.

    Mara rose to fame in 2011’s The Social Network and followed that up with the starring role in The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo opposite Daniel Craig. In 2013 she starred in Side Effects with Jude Law, Channing Tatum, and Catherine Zeta-Jones. Also that year she joined Amy Adams, Scarlett Johansson, Joaquin Phoenix, and Olivia Wilde in the star-studded cast of the critically acclaimed Her.

    Mara’s list of upcoming projects isn’t quite as long as Chastain’s: Carol (with Cate Blanchett,) Pan (with Hugh Jackman and Amanda Seyfried,) Trash (with Martin Sheen,) and an untitled Terrence Malick project with Christian Bale, Cate Blanchett, Michael Fassbender, Ryan Gosling, Val Kilmer and Natalie Portman.

    In late June it was announced that Mara would produce and may star in the film adaptation of Amanda Lindhout’s A House in the Sky, a memoir chronicling the author’s 15-month imprisonment in Somalia.

    Image via Wikimedia Commons

  • Zero Dark Thirty Movie Tie-In Maps Coming to Medal of Honor Warfighter

    Zero Dark Thirty is the new movie depicting the hunt for and assassination of Osama bin Laden. The movie is directed by Oscar-winning director Kathryn Bigelow and is generating quite a bit of Oscar buzz itself. While the movie has gotten almost universally good reviews, it’s about to get a tie-in to one of the worst-reviewed shooter video games of 2012.

    Today, Danger Close Games announced that new downloadable content (DLC) for Medal of Honor Warfighter will feature multiplayer maps based on the areas in Pakistan where Osama Bin Laden was hunted. The map pack will have two new maps, “Chitral Compound” and “Darra Gun Market,” and will cost $10. Over on the PlayStation Blog, Danger Close Level Designer Marc Janas describes the creation of the maps:

    When creating these levels, the first thing we did was look for reference images for the locations. This helped us decide on compelling objectives for the Combat Mission game mode, which is very story driven. Once we tackled that, the next step was sitting down with the artists and flushing out our vision for the actual play space by creating a broad layout for them to base the terrain on.

    Medal of Honor Warfighter was panned widely for its name, generic gameplay, and a huge day-one patch that was required to fix major issues with the game. Not only that, but in a genre where military violence is heavily glorified, the game was criticized by reviewers for its macho tone. In light of this reception, the inclusion of maps based on the most widely publicized recent military operation both fits the game well and stands as a brazen dismissal of its critics.