Jessica Chastain and Jess Weixler star in Ned Benson’s indie darling The Disappearance of Eleanor Rigby. Throughout the three-part movie project, Benson explores the perspectives of the Him, Her and Them – Eleanor (Chastain), Conor (James McAvoy) and assorted others.

Jessica Chastain, Jess Weixler Exclusive

“When we first meet Eleanor, it’s in the beginning of love; so she’s drunk in love and there’s something kind of selfish about it,” Chastain explained in an exclusive interview with uInterview. “It’s like they have eyes only for each other and this beautiful moment that they’re in. It becomes difficult for her because a tragedy strikes them and she has to then navigate her way through life in a kind of very adult way.”

The concept behind The Disappearance of Eleanor Rigby, broadly, is that there are three sides to every story. More than that, however, is the idea that men and women view relationships and nearly everything else through differing lenses that inform their thoughts and actions. Chastain can relate to Benson’s screenplay, acknowledging, “I think it depends definitely on the man and the woman,” before adding, “I do. I know, that sometimes I’ve had different views of the relationship based on the men I’ve been with. So, yes, it can be.”

Weixler added, “I would say also, any two people probably take something different from a moment – male or female. Any two people in a room will walk away and have different memories of what happened.”

While the subject matter at hand is consistently serious in The Disappearance of Eleanor Rigby, Chastain and Weixler who’ve been close friends for years, found themselves laughing on set when they had to film a fight scene together. “We kept laughing before that because we’re like, ‘We get to punch each other!’” said Chastain. “We were pulling hair, all of that stuff. We’ve known each other, we went to college together, were best friends, we’re like sisters so it was really fun to be like, ‘We’re going to fight!'”

“I was laughing all the way up to the point where I actually threw out my back in the fight scene,” Weixler laughed.

The Disappearance of Eleanor Rigby is currently in theaters.

Leave a comment

Read more about: