14 DAY TRIAL // Jessica Chastain is a fixture on the awards circuit, but with all that, she’s yet to win an Oscar. Next February’s round of the Academy Awards might change all that, with the actress getting plenty of favorable buzz for her solid performance as a mobster’s wife in the J.C. Chandor-directed “A Most Violent Year.”
There’s a reason you haven’t heard about that movie yet, even though it’s nearing theatrical release and is already getting plenty of raving reviews from the critics: Chastain, its biggest star, isn’t allowed to talk about it.
Thank Christopher Nolan for that because he and his people have blocked her from promoting it, because she also stars in his “Interstellar,” and as such, must only talk about this movie during promotion.
Chastain can’t do appearances for, talk about “A Most Violent Year”
Christopher Nolan has the reputation of being one of the nicest and most professional people in film, and he’s also a heavyweight director whose most recent movies have all done great at the box office. However, sources close to the situation reveal for the New York Times, even he can get a bit territorial at times.
According to the tipsters, until the end of the year, Chastain is only allowed to do appearances to promote “Interstellar.” She can’t do interviews / TV shows, attend semi-private meetings or otherwise discuss about “A Most Violent Year,” and Nolan and his people made sure to include that in her contract.
Until today, she’s only taken a handful a questions about this smaller production, and never when she was in the US, so there might be a clause about that too. She was, however, allowed to attend the Hollywood premiere, which took place earlier this week – but that’s about it.
Until January, she won’t be able to do any kind of promo for the mobster movie, because she’s tied to “Interstellar,” which is already running in theaters. She plays a scientist trying to save the world in this one – but she’s not a lead. The leads are Matthew McConaughey and Anne Hathaway.
Nolan destroyed Chastain’s Oscar chances
And here’s where things get really nasty. Producers on “A Most Violent Year” knew about Chastain’s contract clause, but they believed she could still attend screenings and semi-private meetings, the kind “that are de rigueur for those seeking Golden Globes and other prizes that pave the way to the Oscars,” the NYT notes.
With this in mind, they set the movie for a limited December release, to make it qualify for the Oscars race. But if Chastain is not campaigning for it, it doesn’t stand a chance to get a nomination. And if the movie doesn’t get any award attention, neither will she, so if she was dreaming she might get to take home her own statuette next year, she’s got another thing coming.
When she’s finally free to promote “A Most Violent Year,” it will already be too late, because all ballots for the Academy Awards will have been cast. Nolan, with his selfish clause, killed any major chance Chastain might have had to get another Oscar nomination, or even win one.
Classic case of dog-eat-dog world
What’s worse is that his movie would have performed just as good without this ban on Chastain. As noted above, he’s one of the most popular and respected directors in Hollywood, and “Interstellar” is already getting solid reviews, so he had exactly zero reasons to do this.
It’s not like “A Most Violent Year” had any chance of stealing the thunder for “Interstellar” because they’re not even in the same league: one is a small-budget production, with a cast of talented actors who aren’t all that famous yet (Chastain is the bigger star) and no money to invest in advertising (so it relied heavily on Chastain’s star-power); the other has a huge budget and an equally impressive advertising cost, an A-list cast of Hollywood’s hottest actors right now, and the hype necessary to do well at the box office.
Reviews for the film are mostly favorable – and even those negative ones admit that Nolan has delivered a good movie, even if a visibly flawed one. Our “Interstellar” review is also available, if you’re curious about what he cooked up this time.
“Interstellar” might have crushed “A Most Violent Year” just because it could.
