December 2009: Jessica Chastain
Provenance: Northern California. Baptism by reclusive auteur: Not long after graduating from Juilliard, Chastain auditioned for the enigmatic Terrence Malick’s long-gestating Tree of Life. “Terry would write down lines on a piece of paper and hand them to me, and I would say them,” she says. “And then someone who worked for him would follow me around with a camera.” Does this mean she has to get naked, the way Helen Mirren always does? Chastain will star as a Mossad agent pursuing a suspected Nazi war criminal in East Berlin in The Debt, out next year. In the film, which cuts between 1965 and 1997, Chastain plays a younger version of Helen Mirren’s character. “I’m the luckiest girl, because I did this love triangle with [co-stars] Sam Worthington and Marton Csokas.” —Krista Smith Photograph by Patrick Demarchelier. Styled by Jessica Diehl.
November 2009: Lily Rabe
Age: 27. Provenance: A bit of New York City and a bit of Lakeville, Connecticut, where she attended the Hotchkiss School but “boarded” at home—with mom Jill Clayburgh (the actress) and dad David Rabe (the playwright). Broadway bona fides: Sturdy parts in Steel Magnolias, Heartbreak House, and, this past winter, The American Plan. Playing against type in … Andrew Jarecki’s movie All Good Things, in which she portrays “this black-haired Jewish Mafia princess.” On the perils of being a hopelessly East Coast actress thrust into L.A. moviemaking life: “My parents did all of this research about safety ratings, and so I’m driving a Chevy Malibu rental from Enterprise. I still haven’t taken the freeway, though, and I’ve been here for months!” —KRISTA SMITH
Photograph by Yu Tsai. Styled by Ryan Hastings.
Age: 27. Provenance: A bit of New York City and a bit of Lakeville, Connecticut, where she attended the Hotchkiss School but “boarded” at home—with mom Jill Clayburgh (the actress) and dad David Rabe (the playwright). Broadway bona fides: Sturdy parts in Steel Magnolias, Heartbreak House, and, this past winter, The American Plan. Playing against type in … Andrew Jarecki’s movie All Good Things, in which she portrays “this black-haired Jewish Mafia princess.” On the perils of being a hopelessly East Coast actress thrust into L.A. moviemaking life: “My parents did all of this research about safety ratings, and so I’m driving a Chevy Malibu rental from Enterprise. I still haven’t taken the freeway, though, and I’ve been here for months!” —KRISTA SMITH
Photograph by Yu Tsai. Styled by Ryan Hastings.
November 2009: Lily Rabe
October 2009: Mia Wasikowska
Age: 20. Provenance: Canberra, Australia. From shrunken head to stretched-out neck: Having made her mark as Gabriel Byrne’s sullen teen patient in HBO’s In Treatment, Wasikowska has quickly graduated to the big time: playing the title role in Tim Burton’s Alice in Wonderland, out next year. “All the people in the movie are really famous actors”—among them Johnny Depp, Anne Hathaway, Helena Bonham Carter, and Alan Rickman—“but they’re so disguised in their costumes and makeup that it was easy to just forget who they are,” Wasikowska says. “Which was good.” She looks purty in goggles, too: In this month’s Amelia, Mira Nair’s biopic of Amelia Earhart (played by Hilary Swank), Wasikowska portrays the precocious aviatrix Elinor Smith, “who at 16 got her pilot’s license and proceeded to set altitude records and fly under the four East River bridges. A really daring young woman.” —KRISTA SMITH
Photograph by Norman Jean Roy. Styled by Ryan Hastings.
Age: 20. Provenance: Canberra, Australia. From shrunken head to stretched-out neck: Having made her mark as Gabriel Byrne’s sullen teen patient in HBO’s In Treatment, Wasikowska has quickly graduated to the big time: playing the title role in Tim Burton’s Alice in Wonderland, out next year. “All the people in the movie are really famous actors”—among them Johnny Depp, Anne Hathaway, Helena Bonham Carter, and Alan Rickman—“but they’re so disguised in their costumes and makeup that it was easy to just forget who they are,” Wasikowska says. “Which was good.” She looks purty in goggles, too: In this month’s Amelia, Mira Nair’s biopic of Amelia Earhart (played by Hilary Swank), Wasikowska portrays the precocious aviatrix Elinor Smith, “who at 16 got her pilot’s license and proceeded to set altitude records and fly under the four East River bridges. A really daring young woman.” —KRISTA SMITH
Photograph by Norman Jean Roy. Styled by Ryan Hastings.
