- Jessica Chastain discussed filming intimate scenes in "Dreams."
- She sought script context from director Michel Franco.
- Scenes were adjusted to address her privacy concerns.
- Chastain said intimate scenes served the film's narrative.
Hollywood actress Jessica Chastain has come out to talk about shooting intimate scenes in the latest movie Dreams directed by Michel Franco saying that it was done in a manner that made her feel very protective as well as necessary in the story.
Chastain portrays a wealthy socialite in the film who is having an affair with an illegal immigrant called Fernando Rodriguez played by a professional ballet dancer. Interviewed by Collider, Oscar-winning actor confessed that she was initially not comfortable with the scenes.
"Yeah, I was absolutely... It is as though, Ugh, I do not really want to have sex with a professional ballet dancer. So curricious and hard that," she said.
Requesting Context and Creative Control
Chastain described the way she went to the director Michael Franco and presented certain questions, in which she wanted him to explain why each act of intimacy was necessary for the story.
"It would be my staircase scene, as an example. They were there at all, all the sex scenes, and I had told Michel to tell me what each of them is and how it advances the story."
She disclosed that in one of the scenes, the setting was initially set in a living room with big windows which were open and that is why she felt uneasy.
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"The scene with the staircase was originally expected to take place in the living room, and the moment we enter the living room, there is the view of windows straight up. I simply was like, okay, I know how you shoot. I do not know what we could shoot this so as to make it seem protective of me. Is there another location in the house?"
The use of stairs setting finally contributed to the emotional intensity of the scene besides letting Chastain feel safer as she shoots the movie.
Power in Subtlety
Looking back, Chastain remarked about the impression of the scene, that it was done with restraint, and not explicitness.
"And my favourite part about the staircase scene is that we actually have the sense that we are watching something that we need not be watching but the fact is there not much going on. I covered the entire scene, but it seems to be so evocative and many people talked about it.
I believe that it serves to indicate that the more secretive things are, the more potent such a scene may be. You do not need to be gratuitous, basically."
Chastain recalled that intimate scenes do not represent a novel in her filmography but are still problematic to her.
Embracing Difficult Roles
"I feel like I do sex scenes every day. Every project I'm in. Even Tammy Faye I was performing a love scene in which she was pregnant. I say it is like I do it, miss, she said.
But I am satisfied with it because also, it is not like I am wanting to do something. It is something that does not come easy to me, it is something that I found hard and whenever something is hard, I have the knowledge of running to it."
She further stated that she is challenged creatively in roles where emotional vulnerability must be demanded like in Scenes From A Marriage and Dreams.
The decision to feature in Dreams at least partially reunited Chastain with Franco, with whom she had made a project together the year before, in Memory, and whom she claims keeps the partnership alive, where artistic risk and trust are the main drivers.
