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Jessica Chastain and Oscar Isaac may be old friends and co-stars, but the pair were seen getting extra close on the red carpet at the Venice International Film Festival recently, sparking speculation that they may be moving out of the friend zone despite their respective marriages. However, Chastain quickly denied the rumors, asserting that they’re simply doing their jobs as they run press for their upcoming HBO series, Scenes From A Marriage.
On Saturday a video went viral of Chastain and Isaac on the red carpet looking very much in love as they posed for photos to promote their new show Scenes From A Marriage. At one point, Isaac even playfully kissed Chastain’s arm, fueling rampant rumors that the pair were together in real life. However, Chastain set the record straight on the Today show on Wednesday, revealing that the pair were just “acting.”
God bless the person who decided to slo-mo this video of Oscar Isaac and Jessica Chastain in Venice.
The tender arm stroke, eyebrow raise… they are giving us the red carpet chemistry that we didn’t even realise we needed pic.twitter.com/lFEu9mTc1B
— Nola Thee Journalist (@NolaMarianna) September 5, 2021
“We’re acting, but also Oscar and I have been friends — we went to college together — so we’ve been friends more than half of our lives,” the 44-year-old actress shared. “Let me just say, though, this is a slow-motion video, and everybody is super sexy in slow motion.”
Chastain also noted that in real time, the sweet moment hardly had the same romantic appeal. “I think it was really funny because when you look at it in regular speed, I’m looking straight ahead and he looks over at me and he just kind of goes to give me a peck on my elbow, and at the same time, I’m going to give him a hug.” She added, “So all of a sudden, his face ends up in my armpit. He made a joke out of it. Look, he’s smiling there!”
Hardly the romantic moment it seemed to be in the video, Chastain confirmed that there was nothing but friendship between the pair, although they are undeniably close. "We know so much about each other, so we know how to make each other laugh without saying anything," Chastain said. "We can almost read each other's minds. It also means we could hurt each other really strongly. In the scenes, we would know how to get to the other one."
This is not the first time that the pair have starred together as a couple, and back in 2014 they played husband and wife in the A24 film, A Most Violent Year. Chastain, however, wed fashion executive Gian Luca Passi de Preposulo in 2017, and Isaac married screenwriter and director Elvira Lind with whom he shares two children.
