Not even a stumble was going to bring Jessica Chastain down. “I’ve very, very, very happy,” Jessica, 45, told Access Hollywood following the 2023 Screen Actors Guild Award, where she won Best Female Actor in a Television Movie or Series for George & Tammy. Jessica took the prize over Emily Blunt (The English), Julia Garner (Inventing Anna), Niecy Nash-Betts (Dahmer), and Amanda Seyfried (The Dropout), and the shock of victory resulted in her joining the list of greatest award show falls. “I’m walking up there, and I realize I’m in trouble because my whole body is shaking, and I’m like, ‘OK I’m gonna need help up the stairs,’ and then I started to trip,” she told Access Hollywood. Thankfully, the fall wasn’t too bad, and she could get up to the podium in one piece.
Just realized that Jessica Chastain tripped on her way to the stage 😭😭 pic.twitter.com/q5eXkSxtAb
— Valen TheThing Era (@StarcoVision) February 27, 2023
“The shock of last night really swept me off my feet!” Jessica later tweeted along with a video of her acceptance speech. “To my fellow SAG members, THANK YOU. It means so much to be recognized by you. I am honored to be able to bring the story of #GeorgeAndTammy to you. I loved playing Tammy Wynette. Thank you @georgette_jones for trusting me with your mom’s story, Abe Sylvia, for crafting it into our beautiful 6 episodes, the GOAT #michaelshannon, & the village at @showtime. I’m back in NY and still over the moon.”
The shock of last night really swept me off my feet! 😅 To my fellow SAG members, THANK YOU. It means so much to be recognized by you. I am honored to be able to bring the story of #GeorgeAndTammy to you. I loved playing Tammy Wynette. pic.twitter.com/4sN5MvLzQI
— Jessica Chastain (@jes_chastain) February 27, 2023
Jessica also told PEOPLE that she was a “little embarrassed’ by the stumble, but it had a silver lining. “I tripped on the stairs — but I had two very handsome men helping me up, so that wasn’t so bad,” she said of the men, one of which was Paul Mescal. “I’m just so over the moon and happy, and I can’t believe it,” added Jessica, who claimed her third SAG Award.
Jessica is currently performing in a Broadway production of A Doll’s House, which she mentioned in her speech. “Every day after the show I get the opportunity to meet people at the stage door, and I get to meet a lot of actors who tell me their stories,” she said, before saying how the late Philip Seymour Hoffman came to speak at her college class. “He told us all his frustrating stories about auditions, and he encouraged us to keep going even when we felt like no one was watching us. And at the end of the talk, he said, ‘I look forward to working with each of you,’ and it really shocked me because it was like he brought it into being. A few years later it came true, and I had the opportunity to do a play with him.”
“I’m telling this story now because it reminds me of how powerful our mind is and that we are what our thoughts create,” she added. “So I just wanna tell everyone who might be struggling at home, to all the actors that I get to meet: Keep going. You’re one job away. I look forward to working with you. I’ll see you on set. I love you.”