While Jessica Chastain may wear many hats for her profession, the Academy Award nominee is only interested in being a serious actress—and she means business.
"My favorite thing is the world is acting, and I want to be seen as a professional," the 37-year-old star tells InStyle while looking stunning in a fitted purple dress on the publication's January cover. "I don't have a lifestyle website. I'm not interested in the fame of being a personality. Some people are, and they love it, and that's great for them. But the whole anxiety I had in 2011 was about not wanting to be in a room and have everyone stop and look."
After struggling for seven years to become a professional actress (during which time she put money in envelopes marked "food" and "rent" to stay on a budget), the redheaded beauty's career took a dramatic turn in 2011 when six films starring the actress were released, including The Help, for which she received her first Academy Award nomination as well as The Tree of Life, in which she starred alongside Brad Pitt.
"I knew the second Brad signed on it was a game changer for my career," she admits. "Then I was just scared that I was going to get fired. It wasn't until after a week of shooting that I started to relax"
Chastain admits that 2011 was both a "huge" and "scary" year for the star, who doesn't like to find herself being at the center of attention.
"I'm sure if Angelina Jolie were sitting here, it would be a very different experience," she said, looking around the restaurant where the interview was conducted. "Because you would have 30 people who are not paying attention to their breakfast companions and are instead staring at her, and that definitely is an extreme. That, for me, would be terrible."
With credits such as Zero Dark Thirty under her belt, Chastain has portrayed powerful women on the big screen, and as she adamantly states, she's not interested "in playing a stereotype."
"There were two kinds of roles for women. You're either the girlfriend, incredibly beautiful but not much going on, or the victim, like the weird neighbor," she explains. "It's like the two ideas of women that are talked about: the slut or the wife. And that's not so interesting…As an audience member, I go to the movies a lot and I want to see women portrayed like the ones I know—women who are really intelligent and strong and vulnerable."
Chastain, who attended the prestigious Juilliard School thanks to a scholarship provided by Robin Williams, also says she hopes to carry on the late star's "legacy."
"I always thought in some way I would have a chance to pay him back," she says. "It was a very strange thing to have never met him. I didn't want to be stalkerish, but then you always question yourself: Did I do enough? I'm hoping there's a way to continue his legacy and keep the scholarship going."
While the thesp has successfully made a name for herself in critically acclaimed films, there is, of course, an interest in her dating life (as with any A-list celeb), although she chooses to stay mum on the topic.
"I made sure when I started that I was known for my work, not for whom I was dating," she explains.
Another topic that Chastain bravely touches on? The tragic suicide of her younger sister, who suffered from depression.
"It completely changed the person I am," she says. "A movie, Oscars, a dress, if someone thinks I'm stupid…I realized nothing is that important."