Jessica Chastain Quotes

I don't want to be in my car all day. I love getting up in the morning in Venice and walking my dogs down to the cafe to get my tea, and then perhaps going to a bookstore and sitting and reading, then walking to the beach.

— Jessica Chastain

“I don't want people to look at me.”

— Jessica Chastain

“Okay, I'm going to let you in on a little secret: I'm a very superstitious person. I'm walking onto the plane as we speak. I'm putting my hands on the outside of the plane and my feet are on the lip of the plane. I have to do it every time before I fly.”

— Jessica Chastain

I'm very sensitive in real life. I cannot not cry if someone around me is crying. I will start to cry if someone is crying, even if it's not appropriate. I have that thing in me, a weakness or sensitivity.

— Jessica Chastain

“I'm inspired by people who are so sensitive and vulnerable that they try to cover it up.”

— Jessica Chastain

“I always say I am a realist, and my mom says, 'No, you just have anxiety.'”

— Jessica Chastain

“Before, it was just about making the films - and now it's releasing them. Which is a steep learning curve.”

— Jessica Chastain

“I think that with any emotion - fear, love, nervousness - if the actor's feeling it, then the audience feels it.”

— Jessica Chastain

“I love fall because I love the whole cuddling aspect of it, and a sweater dress has that vibe of I'm going to hunker down and be warm, but it's also very feminine.”

— Jessica Chastain

“Broadway has always been a dream of mine.”

— Jessica Chastain

I'm the unknown everyone's already sick of.

— Jessica Chastain

“You know, it's recently come into focus for me why I want to be an actor: It's because of the connection I feel to people.”

— Jessica Chastain

I was excited that my films would finally see the light of day and people would see them. But I never imagined that such nice things would be said about a lot of my films.

— Jessica Chastain

“There is this immediate connection, this intimacy when you're acting because there's no room to be polite or shy. Also, as an actor I get to connect with women I've never met before.”

— Jessica Chastain

I've actually been given a great gift. When I walk into an audition with a director, I'm carrying no baggage. They haven't seen me in anything, even though I've done nine films.

— Jessica Chastain

“I have a feeling that very soon I'm going to fail very, very big. I'm going to try something and everybody's going to be like, 'What was she thinking?'”

— Jessica Chastain

“I don't like the idea that fame could mean that people can no longer relate to me.”

— Jessica Chastain

I try not to fake anything.

— Jessica Chastain

I'm used to working really hard to get a role. I was always auditioning and talking my way into roles.

— Jessica Chastain

I've had to learn how to say 'no' to offers.

— Jessica Chastain

“When something happens, I always check myself and know it's going to go away. So be prepared for it. This is a tough business for actors who are sensitive. If you try to hold on to things, you'll go crazy.”

— Jessica Chastain

“I can't even open my eyes underwater.”

— Jessica Chastain

I'm such a geek.

— Jessica Chastain

“I'm the first person in my family to go to college.”

— Jessica Chastain

Whatever anyone says, I think the opposite will happen.

— Jessica Chastain

“I've spent my life being embarrassed.”

— Jessica Chastain

“I've never been in New York for the whole time of Fashion Week.”

— Jessica Chastain

No one ever recognizes me.

— Jessica Chastain

It takes me a long time to make a big purchase.

— Jessica Chastain

“People were confused by me, and at first I was auditioning a lot for the crazy characters or the victim, someone who'd been attacked. Which is great, because usually those are the best acting roles.”

— Jessica Chastain

It's tough, acting. You have to walk two lines of a tightrope. There's the all-consuming fear of failure: I'm about to fall flat on my face. There's that and there's also confidence - you have to be confident in order to try things - and they fight each other all the time.

— Jessica Chastain

“If you don't fully take every moment and love every moment and every person that you're with, your life will be over before you realise.”

— Jessica Chastain

“Every time an actress is celebrated for her great work, I cheer. For the more brilliant their performance, the more the audience demands stories about women ... And as we all know: a great year for women in film, is just a great year for film.”

— Jessica Chastain

“I feel like the bigger risks that I take, the more I learn. I know that I learn more from my failures than successes.”

— Jessica Chastain

“The most important thing in my life, and the thing I try to focus on, is to try not to live a life of cruelty. That means trying to make sure I look people in the eye when I meet them. Sometimes you jump in a taxi, or maybe you only have two minutes with someone, and you never see them again. I try to always look them in the eye and have a real experience of what it is to communicate with someone ... I guess it's about trying to live a life where I'm not contributing to the cruelty in the world ... While I am on this planet, I want everyone I meet to know that I am grateful they are here.”

— Jessica Chastain

“I don't mind if the character is a small character, but I would just like her to have a journey in the film. Sometimes the characters are just there as a prop to further the man's story. The great directors I've talked to, I've said listen, I don't mind playing a woman that is a tiny part, but how does the story affect her? What can I play in the end that's different from the beginning? Otherwise, it doesn't make sense, because it's just like being a prop.”

— Jessica Chastain

“When you're on a Terrence Malick film, it's like you're part of a family.”

— Jessica Chastain

“If someone does something bad to you, you do something worse to them so they never mess with you again.”

— Jessica Chastain

“Any man that dates me, the thing they're gonna have to live up is my dad - he's a real hero.”

— Jessica Chastain

“An actress friend of mine shared a great trick. She told me to stick my tongue behind my teeth when I smile to keep from over-smiling. If you smile without doing it, sometimes your gums show a little too much. It's an actor's trick!”

— Jessica Chastain

“I'm very shy, I feel very awkward.”

— Jessica Chastain

“And to stand together against homophobic, sexist, misogynistic, anti-Semitic and racist agendas. I'm an optimist. And I can't help but feel hopeful about the future of film, especially looking at all these beautiful people in this room. Martin Luther King Jr. said, 'Our lives begin to end the day we become silent about things that matter.' And I would like to encourage everyone in this room to please speak up.”

— Jessica Chastain

“I like things where I can do a physical transformation, and I love accents and voices, and I'm never going to play the same character twice.”

— Jessica Chastain

“I'm the kind of person [who] when I'm doing a play, and even when I'm working, I don't do anything else. When I'm working, I just work.”

— Jessica Chastain

“I love talking about acting. I'm just such a fan of actors and filmmakers, and I try to choose roles where I get to talk to great actors about acting and learn.”

— Jessica Chastain

“Robin Williams was the kind of generous person who would do things but not want to receive public credit for it.”

— Jessica Chastain

“I am the worst at keeping secrets. I am the kind of person that the second I buy someone a Christmas present, I tell them what I bought them. I don't wait until Christmas. I'm not good at it.”

— Jessica Chastain

“I remember being a teenager and having a boyfriend - this guy I thought I was way better than, and completely out of his league. He was a year younger than me. And he broke up with me. It was so shocking, and I couldn't believe it.”

— Jessica Chastain

“I think both nature and grace live within everyone, and I always strive to be in a world of grace and compassion.”

— Jessica Chastain

“It's a fact, the majority of films in Hollywood are from the male perspective. And the female characters, very rarely do they get to speak to another female character in a movie, and when they do it's usually about a guy, not anything else. So they're very male-centric, Hollywood films, in general. So I think it's incredible that Ned Benson, when I said I'd love to know where she goes, says okay, I'm going to write another film from the female perspective.”

— Jessica Chastain