Jessica’s got America’s gun lobby in her sights

JESSICA CHASTAIN is preparing for a shootout over gun control. The award-winning actress, who appeared with Matt Damon in Ridley Scott’s hit Oscar and Bafta contender The Martian, will play a Washington lobbyist who launches a broadside against t he powerful National Rifle Association. ‘It’s a David and Goliath story, with this woman up against a powerful force: the NRA,’ Jessica said of the movie, Miss Sloane, which wi l l also star Mark Strong. The picture reunites her with director John Madden and producer Kris Thykier, who cast her in The Debt as the younger version of the character who would grow up to be Helen Mirren. We were chatting over tea at the 21 Club in New York on the day President Obama had announced, in an emotional address, new eff orts to strengthen gun laws. Jessica noted that at least in Miss Sloane, which starts filming in Toronto next month, she doesn’t have to assault anyone physically.

She played by different rules, though, i n The Huntsman: Winter’s War, in which she s t ars with l eading man Chris Hemsworth and leading gels E mi l y Blunt and Charlize Theron.

‘I play Sara , a Scottish warrior, and I fight alongside — and sometimes against — Chris Hemsworth, who is just so ridiculously tall!’

The film’s costume designer came up with a novel way for the 5ft 4in redhead to keep up with the 6ft 3in Aussie.

‘They built me these boots that had four-and-a-half-inch heels hidden inside them but were made to look flat.

‘Every once in a while we’d be walking along and I’d trip. Chris would laugh; I should have asked the designers to make him a pair.’

The trio of actresses messed about with Hemsworth in their own way. ‘We were like his three sisters, and we teased him so much. He loved every second,’ Jessica told me.