When quizzed about Jessica Chastain’s central performance in upcoming gun control drama Miss Sloane, director John Madden told Entertainment Weekly that she is, quite simply, “the engine of the movie.” And that’s a fiery, potentially award-worthy drive that courses through the veins of today’s debut trailer.
Taking point as Elizabeth Sloane, the Oscar-nominated actress anchors Madden’s prescient motion picture as a lobbyist who throws her career on the line in an effort to push for a background-check bill in the US Senate, something that could potentially curb gun violence in the United States. That places Miss Sloane on a collision course with the NRA, though judging by this snippet, one which has Chastain’s lead deliver an inspired statement of intent directly to the camera, it is the NRA that ought to be prone to falling onto the back foot.
Believing Jessica Chastain to be a perfect fit for the role – and we’re inclined to believe him – John Madden told EW that “in this case, it’s a woman and the movie is totally framed around that character. She is the engine of the movie.”
“The first moment I read the script I thought that the role belonged to Jessica,” he says. “She has a reputation now as an actor that’s in a class — and people expect to see a level of performance from her that’s commanding and detailed and unusual. From tremendous strength and drive on the one hand and fragility and vulnerability on the other. And the scale on this film calls for both of those two things.”
Miss Sloane, also starring Mark Strong, Gugu Mbatha-Raw, Michael Stuhlbarg, Alison Pill, Jake Lacy, John Lithgow, and Sam Waterston, opens in theaters on December 9.
Published: Sep 13, 2016 03:26 pm