Jessica Chastain and Oscar Isaac.Photo: Vittorio Zunino Celotto/Getty
“Oscar I’ve known for 20 years. We went to college together,” Chastain tells PEOPLE of herScenes from a Marriagecostar. “We have the same process. When I got the scripts, I knew immediately it was going to be like a play, because most of it’s just him and I talking for an hour, sometimes not calm.”
In the HBO limited series (premiering Sunday), Chastain, 44, and Isaac, 42, play unhappily married couple Mira and Jonathan. The actress says her close bond with Isaac helped them navigate some of their characters' more challenging and emotional scenes.
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“I knew it was basically just acting with Oscar,” Chastain says of wanting to take on the role. “I knew there was going to be something about it that would be freeing because I wouldn’t have to be muscling and doing a lot of work. I could just create my backstory, create my character and then show up and just look at him, and the same thing with him. We effect each other, and so we don’t have to plan what we’re going to do.”
“It’s like surfing together,” she continues. “It’s a special thing, and it’s very rare to have it with another actor. We have it with each other. So for me, I knew it was an opportunity to just be in the moment and almost do theater with Oscar.”
Chastain, who trained at Juilliard with Isaac and previously played his onscreen wife in 2014’sA Most Violent Year, admits she did have to employ her own little mind trick to reframe her relationship with Isaac.
“Prep for me, I had to see Oscar in a different way, which was complicated because these characters are best friends, and they know so much about each other,” she explains. “They know everything about each other, so that was easy. But then I was like, ‘Okay, how am I going to switch [Oscar] in my mind? Because he’s literally not Jonathan at all.’ So I had to, I literally changed his name in my phone to Jonathan. I did. Because every time he texted me, I wanted it to say ‘Jonathan,’ so it could just remind me of the project, you know?”
Chastain and Isaac also used a couples workbook to flesh out their characters' dynamic.
The actress says the day they wrapped filming onMarriage, ‘Jonathan’ was back to ‘Oscar’ in her phone.
“As soon as we ended [I changed his name back],” she says. “That day, that’s one of the things I did. I was like, ‘Okay. Done.’ And for me, it needed to be a clean break. Some of the stuff we did was so dark, I think we both needed a break. But our families, we have kids the same age and everything, so we have seen each other since and have play dates and all that.”
The series is notalldark, though. Audiences will get to see the actors in happier places and times.
“I see it as a love story over time about the complexities of vulnerability,” Chastain says.
Scenes from a Marriagepremieres Sunday on HBO.
source: people.com
