When Jessica Chastain first started to get acting work and more attention, she glossed over her dirt-poor childhood and even covered up her real age. As more years passed, Chastain grew more comfortable talking about her past and owning every part of her story. She was basically the first person in her family to escape the cycle of poverty, teen pregnancy and little education. She graduated from the American Academy of Dramatic Arts in 1998, and she graduated from Julliard in 2003. Chastain is now 48 years old and the mother of two children. Well, Jessica is apparently going back to school! She’s going to Harvard to get a Master’s degree.
Jessica Chastain is pursuing a Master’s degree. Chastain, 48, has enrolled in Harvard University’s Masters in Public Administration program at the school’s John F. Kennedy School of Government, PEOPLE confirms. The actress has been seen taking classes on Harvard’s campus in Cambridge, Massachusetts this summer, Variety first shared on July 30, citing a source.
Chastain, who won an Academy Award in March 2022 for her performance in The Eyes of Tammy Faye, studied briefly at Sacramento City College in Sacramento, Calif. in the late 1990s before she launched her acting career. The American Academy of Dramatic Arts lists Chastain among its notable alumni as a member of its class of 1998. After AADA, Chastain also studied acting at The Juilliard School and graduated in 2003. Juilliard also bestowed an honorary doctorate upon Chastain in May 2024 in recognition of her “outstanding contributions” to the theater and film industries.
Chastain has spoken about her difficult upbringing with a single mom in Northern California in the past. In December 2024, the actress addressed her childhood during a speech at the 38th Annual American Cinematheque Awards, where she explained that her great-grandmother, grandmother, aunt and mother all had children before age 17 and “had to drop out of school and take on low-paying jobs to support their families. I was the first in my family to not get pregnant as a teenager, the first to finish high school and the first to attend college. And attending the Juilliard School didn’t just change my life. It showed my family that a different path was possible.”
Chastain’s choices have always surprised me, but this one is pretty amazing. Even though most actresses talk about how their careers slow down in their 40s, I imagine Jessica is still getting good scripts and lots of offers. She’s basically taking what, two years off of a relatively thriving career, all to be in one place and get a graduate degree. That’s pretty awesome. I also wonder if she plans to transition into another field, and maybe she’s winding down her acting career. I mean, Master’s in Public Administration? She’s running!
Photos courtesy of Avalon Red.
