Jessica Chastain didn’t know what a lobbyist was before Miss Sloane

Jessica Chastain didn’t understand the role of a political lobbyist prior to reading the script for Miss Sloane.
The Zero Dark Thirty star is an avid supporter of former Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton and takes a keen interest in political news. But when it came to preparing for her role playing gun control lobbyist Elizabeth Sloane in the upcoming movie Miss Sloane, Jessica admits that she had to work out exactly what her character does for a job.
“I didn’t really know what a lobbyist was,” Jessica told WWD at a screening for the film at the SAG-AFTRA Foundation in Manhattan at the weekend (0-04Dec16).
“I read a book by (former lobbyist) Jack Abramoff and I thought, ‘OK, I need to understand a modern, day-to-day lobbyist, especially someone who was successful in that industry.’ How did they get to that place?”
In Miss Sloane, Elizabeth is the most sought after and formidable lobbyist in Washington D.C., who is known equally for her cunning and her track record of success. But when she takes on the most powerful opponent of her career, she finds that winning may come at too high a price.
To really get stuck into the character, Jessica set out about interviewing key female lobbyists.
“I needed to talk to women about it because as we all know, Washington’s a boys’ club and I needed to understand it from their perspective,” she shared.
A staunch Democrat, Jessica said working on Miss Sloane didn’t change her political stance, but it did reinforce her hope of seeing “more women in positions of power”, especially after seeing her hopes dashed when Hillary failed in her bid to become the first female U.S. president.
“That’s something I’m really passionate about and I hope that after this current election and with films like Miss Sloane coming out, it will inspire women to step forward and start running this country – and it will inspire us to vote for them,” she added.
Miss Sloane, which also stars Mark Strong and Gugu Mbatha-Raw, begins to hit theatres from December (16).