Jessica Chastain ran along a beam '40 to 50 feet' in the air in heels because she refused to use a stunt double, 'The 355' director Simon Kinberg revealed
- "The 355" director Simon Kinberg told Insider that Jessica Chastain asked to do a "terrifying" stunt.
- He said she ran along a beam "40 to 50 feet" in the air in heels because she refused to use a stunt double.
"The 355" director Simon Kinberg told Insider that Jessica Chastain ran along a beam "40 to 50 feet" in the air in heels because she refused to use a stunt double.
Chastain is the producer and star of the upcoming action movie about a group of spies from different international organizations that team up to save the world. In one of the featurette trailers for "The 355," it was revealed that Chastain herself did the stunt where her character Mace jumps from a dock beam onto a metal container on a boat. Chastain told ET Canada that she had to do the stunt multiple times and had the air knocked out of her lungs during the cut that made it into the movie.
In an interview with Insider, Kinberg said he did not enjoy watching Chastain complete this particular stunt.
"She was all wired up but it was really terrifying to watch," Kinberg said. "In fact, I couldn't watch her walking along that beam because it was basically like doing a tight rope walk 50 feet above the above a wooden dock in heels. The docks were the ones where I really felt like she could die. And the other [stunts] were more like, well she could break her nose, and then we're gonna shut the movie down for a few weeks while she heals up."
Kinberg added that Chastain asked to do the stunts for the movie rather than use a stunt double.
"Every time she was like, 'Oh, I can do that fight. I'm gonna learn it in two days,'" Kinberg said. "I was like, 'Or you could just let the stunt woman do it. Nobody will know the difference.' And she said, 'They'll know the difference and I'll know the difference.' I said, 'Okay, go ahead.' And so, elbows were flying toward her face, and men twice her size were beating her up."
Kinberg continued: "She is game for everything and anything. She is tenacious. She is focused, driven, committed in a way that I've seen very few actors in my career. It's one of the reasons I love working with her. It's also one of the things that terrify me."
"The 355" is out in theatres this Friday. The movie also stars Lupita Nyong'o, Penélope Cruz, Diane Kruger, Fan Bingbing, and Sebastian Stan.