Jessica Chastain opened up about how filming Scenes From a Marriage affected her longtime friendship with Oscar Isaac.
“I mean, Scenes From a Marriage was very tough. And I love Oscar, but the reality is, our friendship has never quite been the same,” Chastain, 46, shared in an interview with Vanity Fair, which was published on Tuesday, August 1. “We’re going to be OK, but after that, I was like, I need a little bit of a breather.”
Chastain explained that the movie’s subject matter challenged her bond with Isaac, 44, adding, “There was so much I love you, I hate you in that series. But there’s so much joy in what I get to do. There’s a lot of catharsis. I feel like I have the best job in the world because I get to have these experiences. They’re so out of this world and feel like they’re mine.”
She concluded: “But then I live a very quiet life. I don’t have to have these tortured things in my life. I play them and I experience them, and then I come home and I live quietly and peacefully.”
Chastain and Isaac became friends after meeting more than 20 years ago while attending Juilliard. They collaborated on the big screen in 2014’s A Most Violent Year before their onscreen reunion in the HBO series Scenes From a Marriage.
“I can’t remember the first time we met. It wasn’t like this magic moment of, ‘Who is that man?’” Chastain said to USA Today in 2014. “[Now, we] have a history. You don’t have to get to know each other, you can say what you want.”
Isaac, for his part, gushed about acting alongside his pal, saying, “The fact that we can tell each other whatever we wanted, that we could argue, we’re very free. We approach things in a very similar way.”
While promoting Scenes From a Marriage in 2021, Chastain and Isaac made headlines for their electric chemistry on the red carpet. The Marvel star raised eyebrows after he appeared to smell Chastain’s arm as they posed for photos at the Venice International Film Festival. In response, Chastain affectionately cupped his face in her hands.
Off screen, however, Chastain has been married to Gian Luca Passi de Preposulo since 2017. They share two children: daughters Giulietta, 5, and Augustus, 3.
Isaac, meanwhile, exchanged vows with Elvira Lind in 2017. The couple are the parents of sons Eugene, 6, and Mads, 4.
