"Zero Dark Thirty," Kathryn Bigelow's follow-up to her Oscar-winning Iraq war film "The Hurt Locker," details the hunt for, and assassination of, Osama bin Laden.
As you may expect, "ZDT," which opens in limited release Wednesday, already has generated a lot of controversy.
First, right-wing critics complained that, while researching the subject, Bigelow and her "Hurt Locker" screenwriter, journalist Mark Boal, were given undue access to classified information and were making a pro-Obama propaganda film. More recently, some left-leaning pundits have groused that "ZDT" depicts enhanced interrogation techniques such as waterboarding as useful tools in the fight against terrorism.
Those who've actually seen the movie, though, have come out rather universally praising lead actor Jessica Chastain. The 35-year-old redhead - who broke out last year with half a dozen acclaimed performances in films such as "Take Shelter," "The Tree of Life" and "The Help" - plays Maya, a determined CIA analyst who, after many years, figures out exactly where the al-Qaida leader is hiding in Pakistan.
Based on a real person, Maya sacrifices any personal life to be focused on and consumed by her work - and the warm, chatty Chastain, who is currently headlining the Broadway revival of "The Heiress," clearly had to act like hell to portray her.
Chastain, who Wednesday received a Screen Actors Guild Award nomination for best lead actress, followed on Thursday by a Golden Globe
nod for her performance, discussed the unique challenges of making this most unusual war film in Beverly Hills last week.
Q: You were committed to another film when Kathryn called and asked you to read Mark Boal's screenplay. What about it prompted you to sign on to "Zero Dark Thirty" instead?
A: I started reading the script and I couldn't stop. Because it's a true story, it was fascinating, like reading an article -- but also, watching the arc of this character, this woman who gave up everything for this. I was so moved by her story that I felt I just had to be there, so whatever it takes.
Q: What intrigued you about Maya?
A: I've never played a part like this before. I'm a very, like, sensitive girl. I grew up in Northern California, kind of like a hippie. I've made Terrence Malick films, which are all about the heart space. I've made a lot of movies where the character was led by her heart: Celia Foote in "The Help" is an example.
This is a woman who is trained to be unemotional on the job and analytically precise. I've never really done anything like that -- especially since I've been trained to be emotional in my line of work (laughs). But what I loved so much about what Mark did is that he wrote as honest a portrayal of this woman as possible, based on the real woman. But also, what I loved was, when you are in shocking situations and you have to smother your reactions, at some point it's going to come out in an unhealthy way. When she, basically, blackmails her boss, it's like this almost crazy amount of emotion. I was really, really excited about the challenge of that.
Q: While filming in India and Jordan, you wallpapered your hotel suite with the same terrorist photos Maya pins up in her office. Sounds like she took over Jessica a little bit.
A: Shooting in that part of the world wasn't the most fun, feeling cut off from friends and family. I wanted to get in that head space, though. Me and Maya have a lot of differences, of course. But the one similarity that we do have is that I love my work, so I can understand that. However, my work doesn't change who I am, I don't become a slave to my work, I can still recognize myself. Whereas, at the end of the movie, she can't recognize herself anymore.
Q: Some of the characters in the movie are composites, but Maya is based on one, still-undercover CIA operative whom you were not permitted to meet or identify. That must have added an interesting dimension to the job.
A: There was the challenge of playing a real woman who you can't give away. So I worked for three months with Mark Boal, whom I nicknamed the professor, and I basically went to school. Any question I could possibly think of asking, I asked. Things like, I wanted to know who everyone was in each scene, related to me and what their jobs were and how long they were in the CIA. That way, I could tell how to speak to each person in a certain way because of their status.
And I needed to know all of the CIA verbiage; that was an incredible challenge. And also, all of the Arabic names. At first, I didn't think about it, but there are a lot of them in there, and she would have to pronounce them right.
Overall, the text was so thick, I had to say it in a way that made it sound like I knew what I was talking about, which meant I had to speak it very fast with names and facts and data.
Q: And though, of course, it was all make-believe, filming the torture scenes Maya observes couldn't have been easy.
A: Yeah, very difficult. The other day, somebody brought up a quote I'd said about being vegan, "I don't want to torture anything in my life." It's a quote that has been out there for years, and now you see me in this room torturing someone! (Laughs) But I'm acting, everyone, I'm acting.
But yeah, I hated shooting that stuff. We shot in an active Jordanian prison, which made the whole environment really heavy. It was an open-air prison; we had to get searched at the gate and couldn't have our cellphones or anything. It was tense, like if something happens, I don't want to be in here.
There was a week there. And because I was playing a character who wasn't free with her emotions, there was a lot of having to hide my impulses. I felt like I was in a straitjacket. There is one scene where we were feeding the prisoner for the first time, outside. In the middle of that scene, I had to actually walk away from the group and I had a good cry. I went behind a building and we actually had to stop shooting for a few minutes. I think it was because I'm used to someone who, when they feel something, I can express it, and I was playing a character who's not allowed to. So it just had to come out in some way.
Q: Kathryn Bigelow certainly does not make girly movies. But did having a woman directing ameliorate making this very tough story at all?
A: She is a great captain. You need the director to be the captain, strong; otherwise, other people come up and it gets oversaturated with opinions. She was very clear about the story she wanted to tell, didn't want to sentimentalize anything. But I know that a lot of it was difficult for her because she's a compassionate person.
During the week that we were filming the interrogations, we sent each other videos of animals being rescued. It was so emotional for me because I rescue dogs and so does she. That's the kind of stuff that was going on behind the scenes. Like, this is not our lives, we are not these characters, there's a place that is waiting for us.
Q: Lame as it might be to ask, I wonder if Kathryn ever related to Maya as a female in a very male, often testosterone-fueled, business.
A: We never talked about that. So many people in Hollywood experience it; I'm used to being the only woman on set. A lot of movies, most of the parts are written for men, most of the crews are men. Someone in makeup or costume might be a woman, but for the most part, I understand what it is to be in a career that is dominated by men, where they have the majority of jobs.
But Kathryn and I never talked about that in terms of Maya. One thing I didn't realize until we finished shooting the film, though, is that Kathryn and Maya do share something: They never stop and talk about how hard it is to be a woman in a man's world. Maya never has the speech when she's talking to a superior about "You're not taking me seriously because I'm a woman," or she never talks about the glass ceiling in the CIA. All she cares about is doing her job and getting what she wants. All of that stuff is a distraction from her job.
Kathryn's the same way. She never talks about the hardships of being a female director. So, on a set, you just think that she's an amazing director and never think that she's a woman. At the end of the day, it goes to show that if you're good at your job, people stop seeing the sex.
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Source: http://www.dailynews.com/news/ci_22199235/why-help-star-brandy-chastain-took-turn-into?source=rss
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