'Our friendship was never the same.' Why Jessica Chastain needed a 'breather' from Oscar Isaac.

Jessica Chastain has gotten candid about her 20-year friendship with Oscar Isaac, admitting the co-stars are no longer the friends they once were. 

In a new interview with Vanity Fair, the Molly's Game actor has said that after starring together as a married couple in 2021 HBO limited series Scenes from a Marriage, their once-close friendship has... shifted.

“Scenes From a Marriage was very tough. And I love Oscar [Isaac], but the reality is, our friendship has never quite been the same," she said.

"We’re going to be okay, but after that, I was like, I need a little bit of a breather."

The Oscar-winner played Mira, while Isaac portrayed Jonathan, in the five-episode drama, which examined a married couple whose relationship turns volatile over several years.

"There was so much 'I love you, I hate you' in that series," Chastain told Vanity Fair.

“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.”

Jessica's changing views on Oscar are a far cry from how the acting duo appeared while on the promo trail for the HBO series. In a viral moment on the Venice Film Festival red carpet, a slow-motion video was widely circulated showing Isaac looking lovingly at Chastain, holding her close and kissing her inner arm.

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The video sent fans into a frenzy, speculating that the co-stars were romantically linked (despite the fact that both actors have been married to other people since 2017). Chastain is married to Italian royalty Gian Luca Passi de Preposulo, while Isaac is married to Danish writer and director Elvira Lind.

Jessica had to address the viral clip during the publicity tour for the show. “Let me just say, though, this is a slow-motion video, and everybody is super-sexy in slow motion,” she joked on NBC’s Today.

“I think it was really funny because when you look at it in regular speed, I’m looking straight ahead and he looks over at me. He just kind of goes to give me a peck on my elbow, and at the same time, I’m going to give him a hug. So all of a sudden, his face ends up in my armpit.”

The actress was quick to defend her on-screen husband in interviews, too. "We're both married to other people, we've been friends for more than 20 years," the Oscar winner said on The Late Show With Stephen Colbert.

"If it hasn't happened yet, it's not gonna happen."

In fact, their friendship began before they broke into the acting business. "We went to college together at Julliard," she told Stephen Colbert.

During their first year at school, they had to perform monologues for the entire drama department. As Chastain did Helen of Troy, Isaac told USA Today that he immediately noticed her – but Chastain didn't have the same response.

"I can't remember the first time we met. It wasn't like this magic moment of, 'Who is that man?'" she admitted.

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In the years since Julliard, they remained supportive of each other's careers. Isaac admitted Chastain was the first person to see his audition tape for the Coen brothers' film, Inside Llewyn Davis. 

After both of their careers hit their strides, the actors would reunite in the 2014 movie A Most Violent Year, in which they played a married couple. (Clearly, directors see the chemistry!)

When speaking about filming Scenes From A Marriage, Jessica shared she was excited to do the part so she could work alongside Oscar again. "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," she told People in 2021. 

"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 theatre with Oscar."

While filming Scenes From A Marriage, Jessica said she had to set clear boundaries between her friend Oscar, and the character he played, Jonathan. "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?"

The day filming wrapped, she added that 'Jonathan' was changed back to 'Oscar' in her phone. "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."

Isaac shared nothing but praise for his old friend in interviews. “As challenging as that was, being able to do it with Jessica, there was something that strangely felt effortless about it, probably the most effortless of anything I’ve ever done,” Isaac told The Hollywood Reporter.

In the same interview, Jessica seemingly joked that the limited series had "ruined" the friendship. "We’re not close anymore," she laughed at the time.

She also acknowledged that filming the series with Oscar had been an experience she found difficult to move past –  especially the domestic violence portrayed in the show.

"This was definitely difficult to shake off. We have kids the same age, and we have playdates and family get-togethers. I remember one weekend, Oscar’s wife said to me, 'He told me he hit you on Friday.'" she recalled.

"It wasn’t an easy thing to turn off."

Feature image: Getty.

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