The Heiress' Jessica Chastain Admits She’s ‘Sick of Movie Stars’ on Broadway

Jessica Chastain is in good company on Broadway this season. Not only is she taking the stage alongside Downton Abbey heartthrob Dan Stevens, but film and TV favorites Al Pacino, Katie Holmes, Henry Winkler, Alicia Silverstone and Paul Rudd are also within spitting distance of her theater. But Chastain, who earned an Academy Award nomination for her star turn in The Help, confesses that she was once tired of seeing film stars onstage—and admits that headlining the new revival of The Heiress is a risky move.

“It’s a very high-profile thing,” Chastain told The Associated Press of leading the revival for her Broadway debut. “You’re kind of showing up holding a target, do you know? I remember being at Juilliard and going out to see all the plays, and I would get so sick of movie stars. I was just like, ‘Oh, why do they always cast movie stars in these roles?’”

But Chastain, who previously starred opposite Pacino in Salome in Los Angeles, isn’t your ordinary movie star. Although the actress has been called one of the 100 Most Influential People in the World by Time Magazine, Chastain reveals, deep down, she’s just a theater dork. “I used to watch the Tonys every year and I’d record it on my VHS, and then throughout the year I’d watch the dance numbers over and over,” she said. “It was the closest I could get to seeing a Broadway show. I know. Such a nerd.”

Chastain is living her Broadway dream through February 10, 2013 at the Walter Kerr Theatre. Don’t miss her moving performance as Catherine Sloper in The Heiress when the show opens November 1!