Jessica’s spy five getting in on the action
THE women docked at the Majestic Barriere pier — which seemed highly appropriate, because the five stars were on a mission to kick down all manner of barriers.
The quintet were called to arms by Jessica Chastain, who made her mark in The Debt, The Help and Zero Dark Thirty. She gathered her fellow actors (Ms Chastain prefers the term actor to actress) Lupita Nyong’o, Marion Cotillard, Penelope Cruz and Bingbing Fan at the Hotel du Cap in Cap d’Antibes, before travelling by launch along the Riviera to the pier.
The women posed for photographs and announced they would star in a spy thriller called 355 ( George Washington’s secret code book apparently used the numerals to denote a woman), playing a group of international secret agents.
Chastain came up with the idea when she was making X-Men: Dark Phoenix with the writer and director Simon Kinberg.
The Oscar-nominated actor, who portrayed a CIA operative in Zero Dark Thirty, had long wanted to produce a film in which women provided the thrills and action.
In one discussion we had, Chastain insisted: ‘I’m not interested in a female James Bond, or a female anything. I want an action film about women, starring female actors. The intention isn’t to take the male template and put women in it.’
She approached playwright and screenwriter Theresa Rebeck to write the script and asked operatives she met while making Zero Dark Thirty to offer insight to Rebeck and her cast mates.
I smiled as I watched the scrum of photographers take their pictures then pursue the leading ladies as they strode, arm in arm, from the pier to the Majestic Barriere hotel.
It would have been impossible to drive them by limousine, so they were shielded by security men (and women) as they made the 300-yard walk.
It reminded me of classic Cannes photocalls back in the day, when the likes of Arnold Schwarzenegger and Sylvester Stallone would try to out- muscle one another when they launched some now long-forgotten film.
But, by my count, the blokes needed more security guards to look after them.
‘We women are a powerful force,’ Chastain noted. ‘We can handle ourselves very well.’
That has never been in doubt.