Best Supporting Actress: Jessica Chastain

Among the Best Supporting Actress hopefuls is Jessica Chastain, nominated for her role in The Help. Chastain recently discussed her acting techniques with actor Michael Shannon (Chastain’s co-star in 2011’s Take Shelter)  for our December/January 2012 issue:

“I think that with any emotion–fear, love, nervousness–if the actor’s feeling it, then the audience feels it. I’m gonna have to be in a place where my heart’s beating fast and I have a physical reaction to what I’m feeling. It’s like this story someone once told me. They had taken a marketing class and were looking at these full-color magazines where there were ads for vodka or whatever. The ads used these models, and they dilated their eyes with the computer because a dilated eye means you’re sexually aroused, I guess. So they did these little subliminal things because then the audience looking at the picture felt this unconscious knowledge of what they were selling. They weren’t even aware of what was happening. So I do feel if an actor’s going through something, the audience feels that, but maybe not in a conscious way.”

Click here to read the full interview.