Oscar-winner Jessica Chastain: 'You reach a level of success and interesting filmmakers stop calling'

Oscar-winner Jessica Chastain has to chase directors for movie roles - because they fear they won't be able to "afford" her.

The 46-year-old actress won an Academy Award in the Best Actress category for 2021's 'The Eyes of Tammy Faye' and has starred in blockbusters including 'The Help', 'Zero Dark Thirty', 'Interstellar', 'The Martian' and 'Molly's Game'.

However, that doesn't mean she is inundated with work offers - quite the opposite.

She told Radio Times magazine: "I think that you reach a level of success where the very interesting filmmakers stop calling. Because they are like, 'I'm going to wait for ever for an answer. They're going to string me along, they'll sign up, and then they'll ditch it at the last minute for something else that makes them more money.' So the weird thing is that now it's more me seeking them out. I think people are nervous to approach me because they think they don't have enough money [to afford me]."

For her latest role, Chastain stars as Sylvia, a recovering alcoholic dealing with childhood trauma, in the film 'Memory'.

And the director, Michel Franco, was told to expect the actress to be a "diva" on set - but she was quite the opposite.

During an interview at TIFF, the filmmaker said: "I told them, you don’t know half of it. She’s the opposite.

“She’s going to show up satisfied, happy, and be productive. People are so afraid of actors. I don’t know why.

"The worst way to approach an actor or any person is with fear, and if you are pointing in the wrong direction then, yes, all your nightmares will come true.”

She added: “Because I have been doing bigger things sometimes and have gotten a lot of attention as of late, [there’s been the idea] that I would not be interested in being on a set without a trailer.

“We had the Oscars, and I won for Tammy Faye, and then right after that, I showed up on set to do Memory.

"Michel [Franco, director] said that a lot of people told him, ‘Oh Jessica is going to leave your film because she just won an Oscar.’"