Jessica Chastain says her friendship with Oscar Isaac 'has never been quite the same' after playing couple in series

Jessica Chastain has said her friendship with Oscar Isaac ‘has never quite been the same’ after playing a couple in a series a few years back.

Chastain, 46, starred alongside Isaac, 44, in 2021’s Scenes from a Marriage, which was an HBO adaptation of Ingmar Bergmann's 1973 Swedish TV miniseries about a marriage falling apart - a heavy project, if ever there was one.

While the two actors are happily married to other people, over the years fans have often grown confused about their close friendship, mistakenly believing they are an item.

However, Chastain is married to Italian fashion executive Gian Luca Passi de Preposulo, with whom she shares two children, while Isaac is the husband of Danish film director Elvira Lind, who also have two sons.

The two respective couples actually both tied the knot in 2017 - Isaac and Lind in February, followed a few months later by Chastain and Passi de Preposulo in June.

Still, that’s not stopped the Google search term ‘Is Jessica Chastain married to Oscar Isaac?’ coming up as an autofill option, a curiosity that stemmed at least in part to a previous appearance on the Venice Film Festival red carpet, where they posed in one another’s arms.

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But their close bond is simply down to a 20-year friendship after attending college together - something they used to their advantage while filming Scenes from a Marriage, playing long-term spouses Levy and Mira Phillips.

Isaac was nominated for a Primetime Emmy Award, SAG Award and Golden Globe Award for his efforts, while Chastain was nominated for a Golden Globe.

While their acting was recognised critically after the series dropped, though, Chastain has since admitted there was one thing that suffered - their friendship.

In a new interview with Vanity Fair, she said filming the series was ‘very tough’, saying she needed space from Isaac after.

HBO

She explained: “I love Oscar, but the reality is, our friendship has never quite been the same. We’re going to be OK, but after that, I was like, I need a little bit of a breather.

“There was so much ‘I love you, I hate you’ in that series. But there’s so much joy in what I get to do. There’s a lot of catharsis. I feel like I have the best job in the world because I get to have these experiences.

“They’re so out of this world and feel like they’re mine. But then I live a very quiet life. I don’t have to have these tortured things in my life. I play them and I experience them, and then I come home and I live quietly and peacefully.”

UNILAD has contact Oscar Isaac's representatives for comment.