Jessica Chastain Says Oscar Isaac Friendship ‘Has Never Been Quite the Same’ After Playing a Divorced Couple on HBO

Jessica Chastain and Oscar Isaac set social media on fire in 2021 due to their electric chemistry on the Venice Film Festival red carpet for HBO’s “Scenes From a Marriage.” The devastating limited series, based on Ingmar Bergman’s 1973 miniseries of the same name, cast the two actors as a married couple going through a grueling divorce. Chastain told Vanity Fair her and Isaac’s longtime friendship hasn’t been the same since.

“‘Scenes From a Marriage’ was very tough,” Chastain said. “And I love Oscar [Isaac], but the reality is, our friendship has never quite been the same. We’re going to be okay, but after that, I was like, I need a little bit of a breather. There was so much ‘I love you, I hate you’ in that series.”

“But there’s so much joy in what I get to do,” the Oscar winner added. “There’s a lot of catharsis. I feel like I have the best job in the world because I get to have these experiences. They’re so out of this world and feel like they’re mine. But then I live a very quiet life. I don’t have to have these tortured things in my life. I play them and I experience them, and then I come home and I live quietly and peacefully.”

Isaac earned an Emmy nomination for his performance in “Scenes From a Marriage,” while both performers picked up Golden Globe nominations. Variety‘s Daniel D’Addario praised their performances in his review, writing, “What’s to watch for is the fireworks as Chastain and Isaac immolate one another, and those are indeed spectacular.”

Elsewhere in her Vanity Fair interview, Chastain opened up on the SAG-AFTRA strike. The conversation took place just a day before the strike began.

“I don’t think it’s fair. I don’t think the contracts are fair, and I’m not speaking for me,” Chastain said. “I’m at a place right now where I can support my family. But there are a lot of people who can’t, and the industry, it’s not right, it’s not fair. We need to stand together and fight for a fair wage until we get it, and we can do that… The reality is, at least what I’ve heard from my union, what I’ve heard from writers that I’ve spoken to, this is a fight that will go on for a long time until people are paid fairly.”

“Scenes From a Marriage” is available to stream on Max.

source: hollywood reporter