Jessica Chastain Quotes

I can't even open my eyes underwater.

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.

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

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.

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

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 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 café to get my tea, and then perhaps going to a bookstore and sitting and reading, then walking to the beach.

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.

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.

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

We need more points of view from women and we need more support for female directors and writers in the industry.

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

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.

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

Look, if anyone is scared, I got your back.

Put others before yourself, unselfish love, do unto others as you would have done to you.

I feel very inspired right now because I know there are a lot of people out there who are really scared but I feel this great sense of togetherness and people coming together and saying, "I got your back."

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!

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

I've spent my life being embarrassed.

Women perform great in the box office. Audiences want to see lead female characters.

To a female superhero her sexiness is not the most important thing about her, it's her mind, her spirit, and when I look at that character that to me is an example of characters that I like to play and I think it does a great thing for women.

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.

No matter what, I'm going to ask for more.

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.

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

I'm very much a hippie from Northern California.

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.

Broadway has always been a dream of mine.

I find that the monsters are usually the people that I have the most empathy for because they're the ones that are hurt the most. There's a reason why they're the monsters.

I am the first one in my family to go to college and I felt a great responsibility when I was at school, because my family was making so many sacrifices for me to be there. I was raised by a single mother, my grandmother got on the plane and helped me move to New York and moved me into the dorm. It was just a big moment, and, yes, it was my dream to be an actress, but also I didn't want to let them down.

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.

Where is the Scarlett Johansson superhero movie? I don't understand it, why is it taking so long for this? This woman clearly shows that people want to go see her in the movies. ‘Lucy,’ didn't it beat ‘Hercules’ by a lot opening weekend, when it was made for a lot less? She shows that she kicks ass, she's a great actress. ‘Under the Skin’ is an incredible film, and why are we still waiting for a go-ahead on a superhero movie starring Scarlett Johansson? To me, it's a no-brainer. You want to make money, put Scarlett Johansson in a superhero movie!

I don't really drink, and I've never been to a rave. I used to cut school to read Shakespeare, not to make out in the park.

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

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.

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

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.

I have problems because I'm very expressive, and usually red lipstick gets on my teeth and face.

I don't want to torture anything. 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.

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.

I think you have to take the whole idea of wage equality out of the film industry.

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.

Every time you fail, you learn more.

I try not to fake anything.

I absolutely made the decision that that cannot be the reason why I'm doing a film or a job. For me, it's always about the script and whether I'm doing something that I've never done before.

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

Whatever anyone says, I think the opposite will happen.

I love being around great actors and film-makers, and I try to hide the fact that I'm in awe of them.

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