Jessica Chastain :: 2011's breakout star

Jessica Chastain was meeting the press for the third time this year. Already her debut in "The Tree of Life" got her noticed and her turn as Celia Foote in "The Help" brought a happy, bubbly presence to the Civil Rights era story.

The interview (to promote her role in the spy thriller "The Debt" in theaters today) was taking place just days after the Wednesday opening of "The Help." Everyone was watching the grosses, though the tracking of them baffled Chastain.

"Do you know what's crazy is that I didn't understand the whole idea of box office," Chastain said. "Then Wednesday around 4PM I started getting all these emails, like, 'We're having a huge Wednesday,' which is wonderful because I'm really happy with the film. It's great because it's gone beyond what everyone's hopes were. I don't know if I'm even supposed to talk about this, but knock wood that it continues."

It has: "The Help" is fast approaching the $100 million dollar mark and is being called the summer's sleeper megahit with Chastain giving a breakout performance as the guileless Celia.

Playing Helen Mirren’s younger self

In "The Debt," the actress plays Mossad agent Rachel Singer. In the '60s, Singer's team hunted a Nazi war criminal. In the '90s, Rachel (as Helen Mirren) reflects on the mission, revealing some possible holes in the story.

"Once I got cast all of a sudden I had the fear of, like, 'I have to play the younger version of Helen Mirren. That's impossible.' She's one of a kind. She's a force to be reckoned with. She's unbelievable."

What the 30-year old actress did was research the venerable British actress' career. "I watched all of her interviews on YouTube. I actually found one of her when she was younger which was really beneficial for me because my idea of Helen Mirren was just this grand, you know, solid foundation, like force of a woman. When I saw this interview with her when she was younger, her voice a little bit higher and she was a little bit unsure of herself, kind of. She didn't have that confidence that she has now. I saw that and I thought, 'Okay, well there's an in because Rachel doesn't have to be an imitation of what Helen is now.' She's the younger version of that."

Story continues on following page.

Watch the trailer to "The Debt"

Kick-ass training

As the younger Rachel, Chastain gets to kick butt with the Krav Maga training all Mossad agents have.

"That's just fun because I was a dancer as a kid and to me fight scenes I realized are like dance scenes. Everyone counts in their head silently and you don't really hit each other if you're lucky. So, it's good. It's not necessarily simple to learn, but in my very first session they said Krav Maga is not about self-defense. It's about killing your opponent as quickly as possible. It's just about taking them out. So, it's incredibly, not simple, but it's quick in the moves.

"It's about someone's coming at you with a gun how to just twist the gun and shoot them, those kinds of things. Or they have a knife, you take the knife and you're able to bend their arm to cut their throat or their eyes or all these things."

Even with only a few months training for a film, obtaining such a powerful skill set has been irresistible to Chastain.

"I became kind of obsessed with it. I had four months of training. Before that I never even thought about myself as a fighter. Then I would come back from training and my best friend would be home and I'd be like, 'Come on. Come at me with a knife.' So, we'd do it. She'd have a pencil in her hand and I'd pin her, just try to see if I could remember things or I could do it on my own without my teacher, telling me what to do. So, I became a little bit of a monster, trying to always take someone down to the ground, see how fast I could do it.

"I did just do 'The Wettest County' with Tom Hardy and Tom loves to fight. So, we'd be on set in our '30s clothing and Tom would take a stance and I would just punch him back. So, I did get to work on my Krav Maga. I don't think he expected me to be as ruthless as I was."

The cover for Rachel's mission is that she is a young mother trying to conceive. This enables her to infiltrate Dr. Bernhardt (Jesper Christensen)'s clinic and capture the Nazi in hiding. However, it also means Chastain performs many dialogue scenes while reclining in stirrups.

"I hated filming those scenes. Of course I'm not really naked or anything like that, but as an actress, for like a week, I'm on my back with my legs in these stupid stirrups. I love Jesper Christensen. He's the nicest man, but it's like every time I talk to him he's like between my legs and it's so uncomfortable and awful. We filmed those scenes in chronological order. So, we started with the first visit and then to the second visit and then to her capturing him. That was the last thing that I filmed of the film. So, at the end in that scene, you can see that I'm just so ready to take him down."

Catch-up time

It's not unusual in Hollywood for an actor to work many years, then suddenly have every one of her films release in the same year. But Chastain began her Hollywood journey years ago. Audiences are only now catching up. (For the record, you can expect to see Chastain in "Wilde Salome" where she plays the title character opposite Al Pacino as Herod; Ralph Fiennes' adaptation of Shakespeare's "Coriolanus"; Jeff Nichols' indie drama "Take Shelter"; the Depression-era crime drama "The Wettest County in the World" with Shia LaBeouf and Tom Hardy; and the highly anticipated crime thriller "Texas Killing Fields" with Sam Worthington.)

"What's funny is that my life really hasn't changed. I guess the most different is the premieres and the press that I'm doing, but normally I'm very rarely recognized. Someone came up to me on the street and they loved 'The Tree of Life.' That happened once. So, I think to me, it's great. When someone recognizes me and they like the film it's wonderful to have the opportunity to talk to them about it especially since I haven't really been able to talk about what I'm doing for the past four years, but then also I'm really lucky because my goal as an actor is to kind of disappear into the characters I'm playing. I think sometimes that if everyone knows who you are then you're not really able to do that.

"I mean, I've only had two movies out. I have seven total this year, and so we'll see how long it is, but right now that's where it is."

The press tours may be more difficult than the acting itself. "The one good thing is that I love talking about acting. I'm just such a fan of actors and filmmakers and I try to choose roles that I get to talk to great actors about acting and learn. So, for me the press aspect is great because I love talking about other people and their performances and their process and all of that. I'm not going to lie, I just got my schedule for September and it's really a bit daunting because I have two films in every festival. So, Deauville, Venice, Toronto and I think that's it.

"But it's still two films in the festivals but then I also have an international press tour and I have press for 'Take Shelter' which is coming out at the end of September and then I also have to prep a movie that I start October 4th, 'Mama,' so I am starting to get a little nervous. I've never worked before where I've been on a press situation and then, like, a week later started shooting a film. So, I'm trying to start prep for that film now and trying to juggle all the things. We'll see when you guys see my performance in the next film if it worked."

No romantic comedies

So far, none of the movies on Chastain's slate are romantic comedies where she plays a workaholic who just can't get a date. Those type of movies may pay well, but Chastain is looking for more fulfilling work.

"I never go the big paycheck route. Cherry Jones, who's a wonderful theater actress in New York, told me once you make a decision on a paycheck then you're always going to make that decision because you're going to spend that money. You'll spend it just like you spend the small paychecks. You'll just buy more stuff and then you'll keep needing that paycheck to feed your house payments or whatever it is. So, when I was in New York I absolutely made the decision, 'That can not be the reason why I'm doing a film or a job.' It always, to me is about the script and if I'm doing something that I've never done before. I'm about to go shoot a film that I've never done before."

Chastain is attached to "The Tree of Life" director Terrence Malick's next film, but that's never certain until the final cut. Just ask Adrien Brody and Ben Chaplin who were virtually excised from previous Malick films "The Thin Red Line" and "The New World."

"Honestly, I don't even know if I'm in the film. I was just going to go visit the set. I love the crew. I love Terry. I love everyone so much, and then the day before I arrived they said, 'Would you play a part?' I said, 'Sure.' I don't even know what the movie is about, but if I ever get asked the question, 'Would you do a day or two or a week of shooting on a Terrence Malick film,' I would always do it. For me he is one of the greatest teachers that I have ever known about, yes, being in the moment and being an actor, but also just what it is to be a wonderful human being. He's a wonderful person. So, I don't know anything about that film.

"Every once in a while I'll talk to Terry on the phone. I was talking to Terry on the phone and he was hearing about this part I was playing [in 'The Help'] that was really so different from 'The Tree of Life' and we were talking about that and laughing, and he said, 'Why don't you come visit?' I said, 'Okay. I'd like to see everyone, Chivo and Jack [Fisk.]' So that's how it started. When you're on a Terrence Malick film it's like you're a part of a family."

"The Debt" is now playing in theaters.

Watch this interview with Jennifer Chastain, Sam Worthington and Helen Mirren about "The Debt"