American actress Jessica Chastain received her star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame on Thursday and received tributes from Al Pacino and Viola Davis.
“Standing in front of this star, I feel the weight and the great gift of what we do in Hollywood. People will step on this plaque on their way to auditions, night shifts, first dates, love heartbreaks and tourist photos and each will carry their own story with them,” Chastain said at the podium.
The 48-year-old actress shared hard moments of her life as the daughter of a single mother, who in her childhood, along with her three siblings, experienced poverty and hunger up close.
According to the ‘Scenes from a Marriage’ star, it was during a school play based on ‘The Curse of the Starving Class’, which includes a scene in which a young boy is confronted with an empty refrigerator, that she first felt seen and understood the power of “storytelling”.
“Stories don’t just entertain, they reveal, they enlighten you and say, ‘Hey, you, I see you.’ And that spark became my compass. Acting is what I do, but storytelling is the reason. Because they generate empathy,” said the 2022 Oscar winner for ‘The Eyes of Tammy Faye.
Chastain was accompanied by two Hollywood institutions: Al Pacino, with whom she shared credits in the film ‘Salome’, and Viola Davis, who co-starred in the Oscar-nominated ‘The Help’.
Pacino recalled when he witnessed the audition of the actress in the movie produced and starred by him: ‘Salome’.
“She started reading and after 30 seconds I leaned over to the producer, Robert Fox, and said, ‘I have three words: Am I dreaming?’ And that was it, because he replied, ‘No, Al, we’re not dreaming,’ that’s how I found my Salome,” recounted ‘The Godfather’ actor.
Davis, for his part, celebrated Chastain’s work and thanked her for the personal support she has given him since he met her, highlighting her power to make people feel “less alone.”
“The star who is consolidating a legacy of hope, guidance, of leaving something in people, the only words that come to mind when I think of you, Jessica, besides love, tenderness, beauty and all those things and talent is that there are no walls anymore, none. You have torn them down through the luminous art of your work,” said Davis, reported Agencia EFE.
Here is a video of Jessica Chastain with her star on the Walk of Fame.
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