A Quote by Jessica Chastain

I don't really drink, and I've never been to a rave. I used to cut school to read Shakespeare, not to make out in the park. — © Jessica Chastain
I don't really drink, and I've never been to a rave. I used to cut school to read Shakespeare, not to make out in the park.
I went to a Jesuit school and they did a William Shakespeare play every year. I got to know Shakespeare as parts I wanted to play. I missed out on playing Ophelia - it was an all-boys school. The younger boys used to play the girls, I played Lady Anne in Richard III and Lady Macbeth, then Richard II and Malvolio. I just became a complete Shakespeare nut, really.
I cut school to read Shakespeare and to learn about that because, for the first time, I felt like I really discovered a passion - the passion of my life.
I was probably just graduating high school, maybe still in high school. When I was still in high school, maybe the last two years, I was rapping but I wasn't telling anybody. When I signed my deal people didn't know it was the same Ryan Montgomery from Oak Park High School, because I used to play basketball and I used to fight. Like I'd bring boxing gloves to school. So when they found out, it was, "You mean Ryan who be boxing?" or, "Ryan who be hopping up at the park?" So I was known as that guy.
I'm not really a fashion designer. I just love clothes. I've never been to design school. I can't sketch. I can't cut patterns and things. I can shorten things. I can make a dress out of a scarf.
I started out doing theater in New York. I used to go to Shakespeare in the Park a lot.
A lot of people have a fear of Shakespeare. Even actors do. People are like, "Oh, I won't go and see Shakespeare because the language is so hard," but it is. When you read it on the page, you go, "What?! What does that mean?!" If you go to a Shakespeare play and you've never been, you sit there and go, "I'm an idiot! I don't get it!"
First of all, there was a volcano of words, an eruption of words that Shakespeare had never used before that had never been used in the English language before. It's astonishing. It pours out of him.
I've made major cutbacks. I used to love soda. So I've cut out soda completely, and I'll drink iced tea or water for what I drink throughout my day. I just made that like a lifestyle change.
I read books for exams at school, but only because I had to read them, and really didn't enjoy it one little bit! The only time I did enjoy it was when I was asked to read out loud in front of the class, as I then used it as an acting exercise!
I learned from master teachers at the University of Evansville, at Juilliard, at Shakespeare festivals all over the country, eventually landing at Shakespeare in the Park in N.Y.C. That show transferred, so I got to make my Broadway debut doing 'The Tempest' with Patrick Stewart.
When I finally turned 18, I started to wonder if rave was now different to what it was and whether I'd missed out on the golden days of rave. So, I thought I'd talk to some of the legends in the game and get an education on how music was made, listened to and the rave scene from before I was even born.
When we used to walk to school, I used to read off the walls, graffiti and stuff, everything. I used to write stories, but I'd never finish them. I wrote poems.
I'd love to do Shakespeare. I've been asked to do Malvolio but for one reason or another haven't been able. On a school trip to the Royal Shakespeare Company at Stratford I saw the great Emrys James as Feste and it's always been a role I've coveted.
I just remember one girl really getting me on the field and beating the holy crap out of me. I never to this day know why. And then people used to be funny because we were on welfare. People used to make fun of you. But I used to get school dinners so I thought it was great, I got a hot meal every day.
My father used to act in high school. He was in a production of 'Othello;' I don't know who he played, but it wasn't Othello. He would talk about it, though, and read Shakespeare to me.
Once an actor told me he went to the Shakespeare School of Acting, and I said, 'I went to the Shakespeare of Acting, too' and he said, 'Oh really?' And I said, 'I went to Shakespeare Elementary School in Chicago.' He didn't take the joke well, he didn't laugh and didn't think it was funny - I thought it was funny. It's all the same to me.
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