(21 May 2014) CHASTAIN RETURNS TO CANNES WITH 'ELEANOR RIGBY'
Years ago at a film festival, Jessica Chastain saw a short by Ned Benson and chased him down to say she wanted to work with him.
When Benson later penned a script about a man's relationship with his wife before and after a tragic event, Chastain urged him to develop a female perspective.
Speaking at this year's Cannes Film Festival, Benson recalled their meeting.
"We met each other a long time ago and I had written the first half of the script initially and then she'd read it and then asked me some questions about the character Eleanor Rigby, which opened up this idea for me to trying out a second script about that character and where she goes in terms of departing the first script. And we created this two part project that we ultimately wound up shooting."
The result was Benson's innovatively structured feature debut "The Disappearance of Eleanor Rigby," which is essentially three films: "Him" (the tale from the point of view of Connor Ludlow, played by James McAvoy), "Her" (centered on his wife, Eleanor Rigby, played by Chastain) and "Them" (a two-hour fusion of both).
After "Him" and "Her" premiered last year at the Toronto Film Festival, "Them" debuted this week at the Cannes Film Festival.
The combined version, which Chastain also produced, opens in theaters in September.
Cannes is where the twice Oscar-nominated Chastain emerged in Terrence Malick's Palme d'Or-winning "Tree of Life," a breakout that announced Chastain as an uncommonly gifted actress.
In an interview at this year's festival, she reflected on the distance she's traveled between "Tree of Life" and "Eleanor Rigby."
"Maybe this will change, but I always feel like I am trying to challenge myself and learn something for each role I play," said Chastain. "So I try not to repeat a role. If I feel like I've experienced something, I have gone through a journey with a character, I'm not going to want to repeat it. I still feel like that, I still feel like a student even though I have been here, this is now my fourth festival. I still feel that desire to learn more."
The film is co-starred by "The Good Wife" star Jess Weixler who studied drama with Chastain at Juilliard School in New York City.
Whilst she visited Cannes four years ago with Chastain, this time around she got to tread the red carpet steps- with a few words of wisdom from her friend.
"She gives advice all the time. Like I have never done a red carpet that size before and she was giving me advice on how to stay calm and how to look around because there is so much energy, you do just want to be like (big smile), but that's not appropriate. That is not glamorous. So she's definitely helped give me tips along the way."
"The Disappearance of Eleanor Rigby" is showing in the Un Certain Regard section of this years' festival.
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