Mission to manipulate

Jessica Chastain plays a lobbyist in Miss Sloane

You don’t want to mess with Jessica Chastain’s Elizabeth Sloane.

In person, Chastain’s a delight. But in the movie Miss Sloane, the actress plays the title character as a dangerously determined Washington lobbyist. Sloane is also the key political strategist at the consulting firm of Cole, Kravitz & Waterman. She’s a star there because she never lets ethics get in the way of a high-paying mission to manipulate.

Things get complicated, however, when Sloane rejects a big offer to represent a powerful gun lobby, and instead joins the anti-gun group to prove a point. Cue the dirty tricks from both sides, but it is Chastain’s Sloane who leads the way. “So much of the film comes from the pulse of Jessica’s character,” says director John Madden, who is best remembered for shaping The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel and Shakespeare in Love.

Certainly, Chastain was up for the test and willing to handle screenwriter Jonathan Perera’s rapid fire, often complex dialogue. “It’s a wonderful challenge to play a character where there are multiple levels of motivation going on,” says the 39-yearold.

When in doubt, the actress had an expert cast to lend her support. Sam Waterston plays her slick boss at Cole, Kravitz & Waterman who launches a smear campaign against Sloane when she switches sides. Mark Strong is her new boss, who is uneasy with Sloane’s rule bending. Alison Pill (co-star with Waterston on HBO’s The Newsroom) plays Sloane’s assistant who refuses to join the lobbyist at her new firm. Gugu Mbatha-Raw portrays an antigun staffer in the fight for personal reasons. “It’s lovely when you come to work and you know what’s going to happen, and you get to work with a cast like this,” Chastain says.

Still, the Oscar-honoured performer realized she was entering uncharted territory. To assist in her preparation, Chastain met with 11 female D.C. lobbyists who represent a small percentage of the mostly male profession. “It really is a boys’ club,” she says.

As it turned out, most of the women dressed conservatively but were quickwitted, distinctive and a little edgy in their own way. “Most of them were wearing black nail polish, which was fascinating because I thought it was so rock ’n’ roll.”

Chastain says, “I like those characters where there is restraint and where there are opposite things going on .... I create a lot of secrets for people I play; that’s how I approach everything.”

It has served her well. Chastain earned a supporting Oscar nod for her wannabe socialite in The Help and lots of acclaim for the CIA agent role in Zero Dark Thirty. Co-starring parts in the sci-fi films Interstellar and The Martian established her in the business. Miss Sloane can be added to her distinctive list

Jessica Chastain