Jessica Chastain snubbed Crimson Peak leading lady role for darker character

Jessica Chastain turned down the chance to play the lead in new horror film Crimson Peak because she wanted to play the movie’s villain.
The Help star reveals director Guillermo del Toro initially approached her to tackle the main female role of Edith Cushing, but she had her sights set on another character, Lady Lucille Sharpe.
“He sent it (scripts) to me thinking that I was going to respond to Edith,” Chastain tells U.S. breakfast show Today. “I mean that’s the lead character, so of course, what actress wouldn’t (want to play her)? But I wanted the darker one!”
Mia Wasikowska was subsequently recruited to play Edith, opposite Tom Hiddleston as her mysterious husband, Sir Thomas Sharpe.
Jessica admits she has harboured a love for the gothic genre since she was a child, and landing a role in Crimson Peak was a dream come true.
“I loved it!” she exclaims. “I remember when I was in high school, I had gothic friends and oh my God, we loved Interview with the Vampire with Tom Cruise and Brad Pitt and all of those costumes! So yeah, this was fun.”
However, the star recently confessed she was left so drained by the project, she had to pull out of another movie to allow herself time to recover.
She told WENN, “I was really excited to play Lucille and I love her when I see the film. But when I finished I was supposed to go off and do another film and I left that film because I just had to take time off. I was so depleted.
“Learning the piano, learning Chopin for someone who’s never played; everything about her. There was nothing easy. There was never a day where I was like, ‘Oh, this is a fun, light day’. Every day was so intense.
“I said to Tom, ‘Everyone tells me that playing the villain is the most fun and I’m not having fun! What is going on?’ Maybe if I was playing a character that got a bit of enjoyment out of the suffering she inflicts on people I would play her again, but at least for a little bit I would rather play more positive characters. She’s the darkest character I’ve ever played.”