Chastain starred in the Oscar-nominated film with Emma Stone, Viola Davis and Octavia Spencer.
Jessica Chastain has one character from her past that she would love to revisit.
During an appearance on Entertainment Weekly's The Awardist podcast -- recorded before the SAG-AFTRA strike-- the Oscar-winning actress revealed that she would love to reprise her role as Celia Foote from 2011's The Help.
"You know who I think about all the time, and I just wish I could play her [again]? Celia Foote," Chastain, 46, said.
Celia was a housewife who bonded with her housekeeper, Minerva "Minny" Jackson (played by Octavia Spencer), after suffering a series of miscarriages and receiving condemnation from her husband. The Help -- which also stars Viola Davis and Emma Stone -- is a story of a college student who returns to her Southern town to tell the story of Black housekeepers, who have taken care of rich white families. Chastain was nominated for a Best Supporting Actress Oscar, which ultimately went to Spencer.
If she takes on the role again, Chastain said that she already has the premise for the film, which if she had a choice, would expand on her and Spencer's characters.
"I just want to do something, Celia and Minny, and see what happened," she said. "You know they ended up living together and raising the baby together, they were best friends. How amazing would that film be? I loved her, and I got to be a bit silly."
She added, "A lot of my characters I feel like I got to experience a lot. Celia, it was such a deep dive for me. I really threw on that character, and I didn’t really get to mine that much material because I was a supporting part of that story. That’s a character I wish I could revisit."
While Spencer hasn't responded to her co-star's wish for a sequel, in the years since the film's release, Davis has been outspoken about the role and the overall message of the Oscar-nominated movie.
In 2020, Davis expressed her regret about taking her role in the film.
"There’s a part of me that feels like I betrayed myself, and my people, because I was in a movie that wasn’t ready to [tell the whole truth]," Davis said in an interview with Vanity Fair at the time.
That truth, Davis said, is that The Help wasn't made for the people it's about, but rather it was "catering to the white audience."
"Not a lot of narratives are also invested in our humanity. They’re invested in the idea of what it means to be Black, but… it’s catering to the white audience," she added. "The white audience at the most can sit and get an academic lesson into how we are. Then they leave the movie theater and they talk about what it meant. They’re not moved by who we were."
RELATED CONTENT:
