Jessica Chastain Says Her 'Tree of Life' Sons Sent Her Mother's Day Cards After: 'I Loved Those Boys'

Jessica Chastain costarred with Brad Pitt as parents of three boys in 2011's Academy Award-nominated movie 'The Tree of Life'

Jessica Chastain is recalling her bond with some of her young costars from The Tree of Life.

As Chastain, 46, spoke with Vanity Fair in the hours before the Screen Actors Guild recently went on strike about her recent acting projects and Emmy Award nomination for her role in George and Tammy, the actress recalled that the then-child actors who played her sons in the 2011 Terrence Malick movie continued to show her motherly affection even after the movie finished production.

"When I did Tree of Life, I loved those boys. I would get Mother’s Day cards after we wrapped from them," she told the outlet. "We really had such a strong bond, and we created something real and we lived it. We lived the story we were telling."

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Tye Sheridan, Hunter McCracken, Finnegan Williams, Michael Koeth, Laramie Eppler and John Howell each played Chastain's sons at various ages in the movie, which follows a man (Sean Penn) as he recollects moments from his childhood in Texas. Chastain and Brad Pitt costarred as Penn's parents in scenes that take place in the mid-20th century; the film went on to receive three nominations at the 84th Academy Awards.

Elsewhere in Chastain's interview with the outlet, the actress described working with Malick, 79, as "one of my favorite experiences of my life" and her highly personal approach to her acting roles.

"I think it’s just the way I am. It’s hard for me to talk about it because I do get emotional when something affects me," Chastain told the outlet, as she noted feeling emotional about wrapping her recent Showtime series George & Tammy on the anniversary of country singer Tammy Wynette's death.

"And again, living the songs, this idea of living the experiences, it doesn’t feel like it happened to someone else. It feels like it happened to me because I feel like I’ve lived it," Chastain said of her role as Wynette. The series focused on her marriage and recording career with husband George Jones (Michael Shannon).

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"As an artist, too, you work so hard to not armor up; you want to be open. And so that means sometimes I do get affected because it’s my job to be an open human being and to be vulnerable and to be honest," she added of how she approaches her roles. "So because I lived this very meaningful experience, sometimes when I talk about it, it’s like I go right back to what the experience was."

Chastain is nominated alongside Ali Wong (Beef) Dominique Fishback (Swarm), Kathryn Hahn (Tiny Beautiful Things), Lizzy Caplan (Fleishman Is in Trouble) and Riley Keough (Daisy Jones & The Six) for outstanding actress in a limited series of movie at the upcoming Emmys ceremony, which has been indefinitely delayed as actors and writers continue to strike major Hollywood productions.

Related: Jessica Chastain Serves Up Some Serious Style in a Denim Jumpsuit While Supporting the SAG-AFTRA Strike

After George & Tammy, Chastain will next appear in the new movie Memory alongside Elsie Fisher and Peter Sarsgaard. Her IMDb page indicates she has three additional projects in the works, though it is unclear whether the ongoing strikes may affect their release.

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