<http://schema.org/articleBody>
"   Photo: Getty Images  Jessica Chastain could be forgiven if she decided to spend the rest of the year on an island somewhere. The actress had quite a summer, starring in The Help, Tree of Life and The Debt, but that long-awaited vacation will have to wait. Her newest movie, Take Shelter, is out tomorrow. Directed by Jeff Nichols, the film follows Michael Shannon of HBO&amp;#039;s Boardwalk Empire, as Curtis, whose visions of an ominous storm threaten his relationship with his family and call his sanity into question. Chastain plays his wife Samantha, a warm yet steely presence who grounds the film as Curtis begins to spiral out of control. Chastain particularly relisshed the relationship she had with her onscreen daughter, played by Tova Stewart, who is deaf, and even learned sign language to better interact with Stewart. The relationship between the two was key to understanding Samantha: &amp;quot;The most dangerous creature in the wild kingdom is the mama tiger or the mama grizzly,&amp;quot; Chastain says. &amp;quot;That&amp;#039;s what Samantha is\u2014when she hits Curtis in the face. She&amp;#039;s not the woman in Tree of Life; she&amp;#039;s not the epitome of grace.&amp;quot; While Chastain was initially intrigued by the role, she was nervous about meeting her onscreen husband Michael Shannon. &amp;quot;I was really scared to meet him\u2014he&amp;#039;s got this huge presence,&amp;quot; explains Chastain. &amp;quot;He&amp;#039;s like this big, super strong guy and I&amp;#039;m 5&amp;#039;4&amp;quot; and shy and quiet.&amp;quot; At the time, she was working with the LAByrinth Theater Company, where Shannon had worked previously. Eager to learn more about him, Chastain began to ask questions around the company. &amp;quot;I was asking everyone\u2014I wanted to work with him because he&amp;#039;s a great actor but I also wanted to know if he was a nice guy,&amp;quot; said Chastain. &amp;quot;Life is too short to work with a crazy mean person.&amp;quot; When he got positive reviews, Chastain signed on to the film, but thanks to the irregularities of film schedules, Chastain and Shannon only met one day before shooting the film&amp;#039;s pivotal ending. When Nichols introduced the two, Shannon politely stuck out his hand and Chastain responded with a hug. &amp;quot;I knew that as embarrassed and as uncomfortable as I was I had to get over it immediately,&amp;quot; said Chastain. &amp;quot;On camera I needed to feel like I owned him\u2014to feel like he was mine.&amp;quot;       Now Chastain laughs at the idea of being intimidated by her co-star: &amp;quot;The more you get to know Mike you learn he&amp;#039;s a teddy bear...I tend to work with a lot of guys who are intimidating like Al Pacino or Sean Penn or Tom Hardy,&amp;quot; said Chastain. &amp;quot;These guys seem very intense and then you get to know them and you are just like `You are not strong and intense at all!&amp;#039; They&amp;#039;re all softies.&amp;quot; With only three months left in the year, Chastain&amp;#039;s not quiet finished with her box office takeover. She has Coriolanus due out in the fall opposite Ralph Fiennes and Gerard Butler, along with Wild Salom\u00E9 opposite Al Pacino\u2014all before awards season kicks off. Chastain&amp;#039;s thrilled though. She&amp;#039;s relishing the fact that after years of waiting her films are finally being seen by audiences: &amp;quot;Someone said to me they were going to make a box set like `2011: My Retrospective!&amp;#039;&amp;quot; "^^<http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#string>
<http://www.elle.com/culture/celebrities/news/a7446/jessica-chastain-thinks-al-pacinos-a-softie-30051/>