"It was different": Jessica Chastain recalls "nerve-wracking" experience from the sets of true-crime movie The Good Nurse 

Tobias Lindholm's upcoming film The Good Nurse is all set to shed light on Amy Loughren, the kind-hearted nurse who helped take down serial killer Charles Cullen. Loughren worked in close proximity to Cullen, who is rumored to have murdered over 400 patients while working as a nurse for over two decades. If the numbers are true (29 have been confirmed), that would make Cullen the most prolific serial killer of all time.

Jessica Chastain, who plays Loughren, received some assistance from the latter on set. She has called this experience "different" from anything she has done before, owing to the fact that she was acting in front of Loughren and trying to perfect it.

Speaking to IndiWire about The Good Nurse, Chastain said:

"It was different than anything else that I have ever done because I have never filmed a scene from someone’s life as they observed me acting it,...She was at the monitor. That was a very nerve-inducing, nerve-wracking, thing to do. It’s a great responsibility anytime you play someone’s story, but especially while they’re watching you do it."

Read on for more details about Jessica Chastain's portrayal of Loughren in The Good Nurse.

---

Jessica Chastain on her role in The Good Nurse

Written by Krysty Wilson-Cairns, who adapted the true-crime saga from Charles Graeber’s book of the same name, the film's primary focus is on the life of Amy Loughren, and how she helped take down Cullen (played by Eddie Redmayne), risking her life in the process.

Perhaps one of the more challenging aspects for Jessica Chastain in this role was that she had to portray the role in front of Amy herself. This was something the veteran actor had never done before. Portraying real people is anyway harder than any ordinary role, and taking on someone who has such a landmark achievement is even more daunting.

During the interview with IndiWire, Chastain also took the opportunity to mention how kind and generous Amy was. The story of The Good Nurse is based on her kindness and how that helped bring justice to a serial killer on the loose. In addition, Chastain mentioned the angle of hardworking mothers in the interview and said that this was her tribute to them. She said:

"When I read the screenplay for the first time… [it] reminded me of my mom in the case that it was a portrayal of a struggling single mom who took down the most prolific serial killer in American history with the help of kindness."

She added,

"That was her superpower,...And that reminded me of all the hardworking moms out there, the unsung heroes that we never tell about, so that was my way in, celebrating Amy and her heroism."

Chastain further commented on the predictability and conventions of the genre. There have been plenty of crime biopics, and it is indeed difficult to do something new. Jessica Chastain revealed that her goal was to find a more realistic way of portraying the character and break conventions in the process.

The Good Nurse has already been shown at a number of film festivals and has been released in limited theatres. It will premiere globally on October 26, 2022, on Netflix.