Jessica Chastain has explained why she thinks Hollywood has been getting female spies “wrong” in the past, ahead of her new action film The 355. The 44-year-old leading lady has played a smart CIA analyst in Zero Dark Thirty, a determined astronaut in Interstellar and a sly poker expert in Molly’s Game, but now Chastain is cementing her place as an action hero. After entering the genre in 2020’s Ava as a deadly assassin, the actress now fronts Simon Kinberg’s new action-thriller The 355.
Having apparently pitched the idea of the film to Kinberg on set of 2019’s X-Men: Dark Phoenix, on which the actress and director previously collaborated, the pair now reunite to reinvent the female spy movie. In The 355, Chastain plays CIA agent Mace Brown, who is tasked with retrieving a top secret weapon stolen by villainous mercenaries. Brown teams up with a handful of expert international agents from around the world in a tale of espionage, action and high-stakes peril. The film features an all-star female action cast including Black Panther’s Lupita Nyong’o and Inglorious Basterds’ Diane Kruger.
In an interview with Empire, Chastain has discussed what separates this new action flick from previous female-led thrillers. The actress posited that Hollywood and the wider film industry has "really got female spies wrong,” explaining that previous movies have shown them as “honeypots,” using their sexuality to do their spywork. Chastain argues that real life female spies are “used for their minds,” and that the more tasteful and accurate depiction is a lot more interesting. Read the actress’s full interview quote below:
“I feel like the film industry has really got female spies wrong … They’ve portrayed them as honeypots, and that’s not the reality of the situation. Women weren’t being used for their bodies, they were being used for their minds, which is a more interesting concept.”
The 355 is set to finally release early next year, having been delayed along with the majority of movies during the COVID-19 pandemic. The troubled production has overcome several setbacks, including actress Fan Bingbing’s involvement in a tax scandal, which required producers to wait for her involvement. The latest trailer for the thriller dropped last month, promising explosive action and an all-star cast of characters, including MCU star Sebastian Stan. Chastain’s new action-hero status looks to be sticking around too, as she is also set to star alongside Jake Gyllenhaal in the upcoming movie adaptation of video-game shooter The Division.
Chastain’s comments help make The 355 stand out and offer a new perspective on a very popular genre. The film is a passion project for the actress and takes its name from the real-life group of the first ever recorded female spies in the United States during the American revolution. Unlike prior, more outdated attempts at female-led action movies, The 355 clearly has sincere effort and passion behind it from Chastain and company, and is determined to portray heroic women in a realistic light.
Source: Empire
