Jessica Chastain
With her piercing gaze and a commanding presence, it came as no surprise that Jessica Chastain went from being a relative newcomer to acting in high-profile roles opposite seasoned actors like Brad Pitt and Helen Mirren seemingly overnight. The classically trained actress jumpstarted her career with appearances on hit television dramas, before landing the lead role in "Jolene" (2008), which centered on a brave woman's 10-year journey across America. Chastain then made a huge leap onto the big screen with a memorable performance as a morally conflicted Nazi hunter in 1960s Berlin in the thriller "The Debt" (2010). The following year, Chastain became a near constant presence on the festival circuit and a critical darling with lauded performances in Terrence Malick's meditation on the meaning of existence "The Tree of Life" (2011), the hugely successful adaptation of the novel "The Help" (2011), disturbing psychodrama "Take Shelter" (2011) and the critically hailed action thriller "Zero Dark Thirty" (2012). These prestigious efforts, made by some of cinema's most acclaimed filmmakers and alongside some of the brightest stars, marked only the beginning for the exceptionally talented Chastain. Equally at ease in popcorn fare like the supernatural horror "Mama" (2013), Christopher Nolan's science fiction epic "Interstellar" (2014), Ridley Scott's "The Martian" (2015), "The Huntsman: Winter's War" (2016) and "X-Men: Dark Phoenix" (2018) and art house standards like "The Disappearance of Eleanor Rigby" (2013), "A Most Violent Year" (2014) and "Miss Sloane" (2016), Chastain was a skilled and eclectic actress equally at home in worlds both fantastic and compellingly real.