Jessica Chastain Had to Remove Her Personal Politics to Lead Michel Franco’s ‘Dreams’ – Hollywood Reporter
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The film on the U.S. immigrant experience, starring the Oscar winner and debuting at Berlin, comes amid President Trump’s aggressive policies: “It’s a country that has embraced the excellence of immigrants.”
Jessica Chastain is more than aware of how topical Dreams is.
Her latest team-up with Mexican filmmaker Michel Franco, off the back of his 2023 movie Memory with Chastain and Peter Sarsgaard, is a provocative take on the immigrant experience.
Premiering in competition at this year’s Berlin Film Festival, Dreams follows Jennifer, a wealthy socialite living in San Francisco who, under the wing of her powerful father, is a huge donor to the arts. She supports a dance foundation in Mexico City and begins a passionate love affair with a younger, Mexican ballet dancer, Fernando (Isaac Hernández), who illegally crosses the U.S. border to be with her. When the relationship threatens to damage Jennifer’s pristine reputation, Chastain’s character is forced to make consequential decisions over his future.
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“It’s undeniably political,” Chastain tells The Hollywood Reporter about coming to Berlin with Dreams. “It definitely delves into the relationship between America and Mexico.” The film arrives at a time when President Trump has been taking aggressive policy action over undocumented immigrants in the States, with his newly appointed border czar Tom Homan orchestrating mass deportations across the country.
“If you look at our Statue of Liberty, if you look at how this country was formed, it’s a country that has embraced the excellence of immigrants,” Chastain says. “I have my own personal politics and personal beliefs that I’m sure are not hard to decipher … But playing Jennifer, I couldn’t filter it through my own moral lens because it would have softened her.”
Chastain unpacked the new movie with THR, explaining how she had to remove her personal politics to convincingly embody Jennifer, how Franco’s filmmaking helps others to feel more human and her own fond memories of the Berlinale.
I have so many questions for you! Let’s start at the beginning. Did Michel come to you for Dreams?
JESSICA CHASTAIN Well, I was working on Memory for him — that movie I did with Peter Sarsgaard — and we were on set, and he came to me with the seedlings of an idea. It was so sweet. It was like, the second week of filming together, and he came up to me when I was just relaxing, and he said, “I’m in love with working with you, let’s figure out our next film.” And I’m like, “All right, let’s do it.” So we just started talking about these ideas he had, and it could not have been more of a 180 from the character I played in Memory. I like that, when the characters differ. When I’m not playing the same energy over and over again.
How did he describe the character of Jennifer to you, when it was still a seedling of an idea?
It’s hard to remember now. Going back, I know the conversations we had about her while he was developing and writing the script. I mean, I just find her so incredibly lonely. I know she appears to be powerful. That’s what she wants everyone to feel, that she has ultimate power and authority. But the reality is I think she’s unable to be in any kind of relationship unless she feels she has dominance, and because of that, she really has no power. Do you know what I mean? To be a confident human being, you have to be willing to allow someone to be your equal. With Jennifer, it’s really quite dark. I think she does love Fernando, and the only way she can really know how to love is to feel like she’s in control of and in charge of how the relationship is formulated.
Their life in Mexico City is everything she wants, but she’s not even aware of the reality of it. She’s built a beautiful cage for him to live in and when he shows up to be in a real relationship with her, she’s not able to do that. In some sense, it’s so dark to even say this out loud — she treats him like a pet.
She does. We land at a point where their relationship is already established, and I wonder how you envisioned their life together before we, the audience, arrive?
I think she has a beautiful life with him in Mexico City. I think that’s where they met, and they have a house together. They really have a life together. She visits him, but she doesn’t live with him. And in some sense, like in the olden days there’d be a kept woman, he’s her kept man. She feels deep love in that type of relationship and situation. She’s dominated by the men around her — her father and, in some sense, her b
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