Jessica Chastain Said That Her Friendship With Oscar Isaac Has “Never Quite Been The Same” Since Shooting “Scenes From A Marriage”
Jessica laughed as she said, “I love Oscar, but the reality is, our friendship has never quite been the same. We’re going to be okay, but after that, I was like, I need a little bit of a breather.”
The emotional Ingmar Bergman remake, which aired back in 2021, saw Jessica and Oscar portraying Mira and Jonathan, a couple navigating the fallout of their marriage.
As you might know, it’s long been clear that Jessica and Oscar — who each received a ton of praise for their performances in Scenes from a Marriage — were super emotionally and physically comfortable with each other when it came to intimacy in the series.
For example, speaking about what it was like filming graphic sex scenes for the show, Jessica revealed during a 2021 interview with Vulture that she was far more comfortable shooting the scenes due to how good of a friend Oscar was to her.
“Oscar is such a good friend. Because I was so nervous, he played music, and we drank a little bit of bourbon. He’d say, 'Just pretend there’s nobody else here. It’s okay.' And there’s a song I really like, so he’d start singing in between the takes. So, I was like, Okay, just lock eyes on him. The most beautiful part of one of the love scenes is the love in their eyes when they’re looking at each other. And he helped create that,” she said.
Then, when it came to promoting the series, Jessica and Oscar made it clear once again that they were super comfortable with each other at the memorable 2021 Venice Film Festival.
In one particular clip that went viral across social media, Oscar could be seen gazing at Jessica before intimately kissing her inner arm — something that sent fans into a frenzy, particularly given that the pair are both married to other people.
In fact, Jessica later went on to tease the whole arm-kissing thing as she promoted the series on Twitter, sharing a photo of Gomez Addams kissing Morticia Addams’s arm and writing the release date alongside a devil emoji.
This week, Jessica sat down with Vanity Fair to discuss how her and Oscar’s friendship was impacted after they shot the show due to how emotionally intense the whole thing was.
After being asked about what it’s like portraying “really intensely emotional” characters, Jessica said: “Scenes from a Marriage was very tough.” She then laughed and shared, “I love Oscar, but the reality is, our friendship has never quite been the same.”
“We’re going to be okay, but after that, I was like, I need a little bit of a breather,” she went on, explaining: “There was so much, ‘I love you, I hate you’ in that series.”
Reacting to Jessica’s remarks on Twitter, some fans appeared to think Jessica was implying that the aforementioned off-screen chemistry between herself and Oscar was what impacted their friendship.
However, as other users later clarified, Jessica specifically noted the emotional intensity of the series is what left her needing “a bit of a breather” — and at no point mentioned the off-screen chemistry between herself and Oscar.
“The fact that they had that close friendship probably helped their performances because they were so comfortable with each other. But the intensity and intimacy of the acting must’ve been so weird to move away from. How can you be normal with one another after that?” one fan wrote on Twitter.
“This series was so real and raw, I am not surprised she feels that way. Their chemistry was amazing,” someone else said.
