Jessica Chastain called out a "shady" headline that implied she went to Target to get into character as a "normal person."
Yes, "normal person" was in the actual headline.
The LA Times recently published a story about the Oscar winner and titled it "Jessica Chastain Shopped at Target to Get into Character as a Normal Person 'Who Leads a Simple Life' for her New Movie."
A mouthful, yes, and also a mischaracterization.
Prior to the LA Times article, Chastain shared in an interview with IndieWire that she got to buy clothes from Target for the character she portrays in her new film Memory.
Of shopping for her character Sylvia who is a social worker, Chastain told IndieWire:
"I was in Nashville at the time, and I went to Target."
"We were moving quickly. I think I spent like $130 and I brought it back, and we did a fitting."
She continued:
"[Director Michel Franco] told me that our cinematographer Yves [Cape] goes, 'She still looks too chic!'"
"There was a lot of let’s try and just scrub Jessica of any kind of movie star feeling that we can, which also I appreciated. I appreciated that I was doing my own hair every day. It was fun."
Many outlets proceeded to run stories about the interview, but LA Times used a headline that made readers believe Chastain went to Target to get into character... and as a "normal person," at that.
After the article was published, Chastain tweeted her thoughts, ripping the publication for their misleading headline.
She wrote:
"Such a shady & click bait headline."
Chastain explained:
"The interesting part wasn't that I shopped at Target (I do it all the time - best holiday decorations & school supplies) it was that I got to get into character by shopping for my own costumes."
"That's the not normal part."
Fans online applauded the actor for calling out the "shady" headline and agreed it was deceptive.
The LA Times did eventually update both the article and the headline, explaining:
"After this story was initially published with the headline 'Jessica Chastain shopped at Target to get into character as a normal person ‘who leads a simple life’ for her new movie,' Chastain wrote in a post on X (formerly Twitter) that she shops at Target 'all the time' and that the 'interesting part' of her IndieWire interview was that she 'got to get into character' by shopping for her own costumes.
“'That’s the not normal part,' she added. (The headline has since been changed.)"
The new headline reads:
"Jessica Chastain went shopping for her own costumes at Target for her new movie, 'Memory'"
That's better... and accurate.
