The actress was offered the role but had to pass due to scheduling conflicts.
Jessica Chastain knows you can't do it all.
The 44-year-old actress revealed that she had to pass on an exciting role, which eventually went to Jennifer Lawrence. While chatting with Josh Horowitz on his Happy Sad Confused podcast, Chasten shared that due to scheduling conflicts she turned down a role in American Hustle.
“There’s so many parts where like, ‘Oh, so-and-so is going to do this.’ And then they fell out. Or I was going to do this and I fell out, so then this person jumps in. It happens all the time and we never talk about it because you don’t want the articles out there like, ‘Imagine this person doing it,'" Jessica said. "I’ll give you one. I love David O. Russell. Love, love, love, and I’ve always wanted to work with him. And I got offered American Hustle, the Jennifer Lawrence part."
"I wanted to do it. It conflicted with Liv Ullmann and Miss Julie. I had been attached to that for a long time and I worship Liv Ullmann," she continued. "So I had to say like, ‘Sorry, there’s conflict.’ And it didn’t work out."
"And it’s good that movie didn’t do well," she joked, before sharing how she worked with Ullman again on Scenes From a Marriage.
"That’s why I share that story, because honestly, she’s like a goddess to me and I worship her," she explained. "Everything happens for a reason because Jennifer was also way better than I ever would’ve been in that part."
The two actresses, however, ended up working together down the line. Both were part of the new X-Men franchise, with Chastain playing Vuk in Dark Phoenix, while Lawrence portrayed Mystique in the films.
Chastain, meanwhile, has had a busy summer promoting her and Oscar Issac's new HBO series, Scenes from a Marriage. She also transformed into Tammy Faye for her performance in The Eyes of Tammy Faye, in which she embodies the infamous and eponymous televangelist.
"When we tested the '90s look, it took seven and a half hours," Chastain told ET of getting into character, "which was super difficult. For the most part, it was like two and half hours of prosthetics, plus makeup and hair, plus costumes before I got on set."
When Chastain saw herself in the mirror, "I was like, 'This is a lot! It's a lot!'"
See more in the video below.
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