You’ll Never Guess the Legendary Star Who Discovered Jessica Chastain FSalinks

Jessica Chastain‘s prolific career has spanned the last two decades. From her breakout roles in films like The Help to her most recent role in the psychological thriller Mothers’ Instinct, she has played a diverse cast of characters and earned recognition as one of the greatest actors of the 21st century. But this success was hard-earned, and also, in typical Hollywood fashion, came about through a series of chance person-to-person introductions. Chastain has revealed that, more than anyone else, actor Al Pacino, who she considers to be her “acting Godfather,” discovered her and helped her launch her career on the big screen.

Wilde Salomé (2013)

This experimental documentary explores the creation of the play Salome by Oscar Wilde, as directed by and starring Al Pacino. Blending fiction, biography, and performance, the film provides an intimate look at the challenges and inspirations behind bringing the provocative story to life on stage.

 

Release Date

December 20, 2013

Director

Al Pacino

Runtime

95 Minutes

Main Genre

Documentary

Writers

Al Pacino

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Al Pacino Needed a Co-Star for the Play ‘Salomé’

In a 2016 interview with The Hollywood Reporter, Chastain told the story of how she met Pacino and the direct impact he had on getting her into auditions. Chastain explained that, in 2004, Swiss actor Marthe Keller saw her performing in the off-Broadway show Rodney’s Wife in New York, and was so impressed that she told her longtime collaborator Pacino about Chastain. At the time, Pacino was looking for a newcomer to star opposite him in his stage adaptation of Oscar Wilde‘s Salomé in Los Angeles. Pacino invited Chastain to audition for Salomé, and she got the role. She and Pacino starred opposite each other in Los Angeles for a full year, and also made both the docudrama of the play called Wilde Salomé, as well as an edited version of it called Salomé, which would later come out in 2013. In a Backstage interview, Pacino explained that Chastain was “the reason I made the movie,” and that when she auditioned, he immediately knew that he had found a singular acting talent.

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Not only did starring opposite Pacino give Chastain more visibility to Hollywood directors, but Pacino also personally vouched for her. Among those he spoke with was director Terrence Malick, who in 2005 had begun looking to cast his upcoming arthouse gem, The Tree of Life. Though Pacino had not officially worked with Malick (he had been offered a part in Malick’s Days of Heaven, but he turned it down), the two were mutual admirers of each other’s work. Malick took a chance on Chastain, and she was cast in the film, which came out in 2011. 2011 was a major year for Chastain’s career, as she appeared in six films which came out that year, including The Help, Take Shelter, and Texas Killing Fields.

Al Pacino Gave Jessica Chastain Some Crucial Acting Advice

In her Golden Globe speech before presenting Pacino with an award for Wilde Salomé, Chastain called Pacino “the greatest acting teacher I’ve ever known,” and explained that he had helped her transition from theater onto the screen. While the two actors were working on Salomé together in Los Angeles, Pacino gave Chastain some powerful advice, which clearly stuck with her throughout her career. Chastain recounted the advice that Pacino had given her: “[The camera] can see more into you than your scene partner. Look at it not like it’s a separate thing but like it’s part of your body almost; it has a direct link to your soul.”

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Pacino taught Chastain to break down the barriers to the camera and treat it as a direct link to her characters. The importance of emotionally honest acting is clear in both actors’ filmographies, from Pacino’s desperate and frenetic portrayal of real-life bank robber Sonny Wortzik in Dog Day Afternoon to Chastain’s gutting role in 2023’s Memory. One of Chastain’s most powerful acting scenes is only one minute long. In Christopher Nolan’sInterstellar, her character, Murph, records a one-minute video of herself talking into a camera to send to her father (Matthew McConaughey) in space. The dynamics of this scene capture the lesson Pacino taught Chastain, as her character is quite literally reaching across time and space through a screen to communicate with another person. Chastain’s face goes through the full gauntlet of emotions in a matter of seconds, switching between frustration, humor, and tragedy. Even though she is looking and speaking into a void, this scene feels exactly like a two-sided conversation, and acts as a metaphor for acting — a way for people to communicate emotion through the lens of a camera.

Chastain and Pacino’s paths will cross again in a full-circle moment, as they have been cast to star in Bernard Rose‘s upcoming King Lear adaptation, Lear Rex. Pacino will lead a star-studded cast as King Lear, while Chastain has been cast as his daughter, Goneril. This exciting adaptation of the timeless Shakespeare play is especially full-circle for the two actors, as both had their beginnings as theater actors, and throughout their careers have shown a love for the stage, even as they both achieved critical success in films.

Wilde Salomé (2011) is available to rent on Prime Video in the U.S.

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