Oscar Isaac and Jessica Chastain cheated on us all with Hollywood’s oldest book trick

By now, much of the internet has already drooled over the viral music video of the ever-dashing Oscar Isaac and Jessica Chastain’s very loving show of friendship as she walked the red carpet at the Venice Film Festival on Last weekend.

The co-stars of the next HBO limited series Scenes from a wedding put on a show in front of the capture cameras for the social media ages. Slow-motion video shows Isaac stroking Chastain’s arm, before closing his eyes to her and planting a soft kiss inside of it.

The result? Everyone’s lost their minds. Not only did Isaac and Chastain collectively swoon over fans and media, but it also created a wave of buzz for their new project ahead of its premiere on Sunday.

By all accounts, Isaac and Chastain are not in love. They are married to other people and are old friends, dating back to when they were dating Juilliard together. But Isaac and Chastain drew attention, with Chastain cheekily tweeting an image of Gomez Addams from the Addams family kissing Morticia Addams arm in the same way.

Chastain captioned the post with the HBO premiere date because their public display of affection wasn’t just two old friends basking in their success and showing mutual appreciation for each other – it was more like a clever publicity stunt designed to promote their project.

Flirting for the cameras is nothing new – it’s an old Hollywood thing, dating back to when old studios were heading to behemoths like Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer (MGM) and Warner Bros. . stage photoshoots of the fake lovebirds for good press.

It’s a ploy that’s repeated over and over again and has become more and more common as social media allows these moments to reach a wider audience than print media. Plus, this shareable content can resurface months after the initial hype around a project has died down, which makes even more sense for cameras.

“A client who is experiencing this moment of virality has the ability to capitalize on a huge audience,” Sasha Brookner, founder of Helio PR, who has worked with Ciara, Andre 3000 and Kat Williams, told The Daily Beast. “I saw the artists’ social media pages increase to over 200,000 subscribers after a moment that went viral. If a publicist is able to capitalize on this moment using the right tools, insight, and efficiency, then you will see tremendous growth for that client in terms of following up and opening doors to promote new projects.

“In the short term, it definitely makes people curious, they can Google or grab a tabloid for more information,” she adds. “If the actors are already liked, people can tune in to see if they can pick up some chemistry on the screen, but if nothing comes to fruition or flourishes, it will die out.”

Jesse Parker Stowell, director of Parker Phoenix PR, which counts Brooklyn Decker and Matthew McConaughey as clients, says that while most viral moments are unplanned, smart publicists tend to “follow trends and meticulously schedule some news. “viral” to come out just when the gossip is needed for a new project.

“Rumors of dating co-stars increase the buzz around these stars, and when they are in the same movie, the movie becomes better known, which can lead to increased ticket sales or increased viewership.” , he explains. “But it’s important to remember that not all rumors are true and not all romance is orchestrated. In celebrity media, you see a moment in time, a nanosecond for a camera flash. or a 30-second video clip on a red carpet. How that moment is interpreted is left to the reporter and, ultimately, to the viewer. “

But actors are performers by profession, says Gregory Littley, digital marketer and content producer. “Every time they walk on a red carpet, it’s like the stage is set for a viral moment,” he says. “So that honestly puts that power on the performer’s lap to take advantage of it and do whatever he wants it to be. They’re on stage, so they’re going to put on a bit of a performance anyway. “

It’s not hard to remember some of those PR-orchestrated stunts that are guaranteed to trigger a flurry of press, like every time former husbands Brad Pitt and Jennifer Aniston are in the same room together. When they were expertly photographed saying hello to the SAG Awards in January 2020, that was all anyone could talk about for the rest of the week. Other attempts are a bit more obvious, with Riz Ahmed’s team apparently trying to create a moment for the Oscar nominee in April when he stopped photographers to fix his wife’s hair, though he didn’t. there is no misplaced bit.

“I think you find the most successful, viral, and memorable moments coming from really strong storytelling,” Littley says. “So when you look at Isaac and Jessica, they’re promoting a project that they fully believe in, and that makes it so easy. They can have fun and amplify it in a way because they believe to the story, to the story, and to what they’ve produced, so they love to get as much excitement and notoriety as possible about it.

Perhaps the best example of this narrative staging is that of Bradley Cooper and Lady Gaga during their awards campaign for A star is born. Although they insisted their relationship was strictly platonic and professional, the rumor mill exploded when Lady Gaga split from her fiance Christian Carino in February 2019, just before the Oscars. It didn’t help that during the ceremony, Lady Gaga and Cooper had a very intimate rendition of the hit song from the movie “Shallow”, as Cooper’s day partner Irina Shayk looked on at the premiere. rank. (The two announced their separation four months later.)

In November 2019, Lady Gaga admitted that the two starred in this love affair for the cameras, recounting Oprah Winfrey in She, “I mean, we made a love story. As a performer and as an actress, of course we wanted people to believe we were in love. And we wanted people to feel that love at Oscars… We wanted it to go right through the lens of that camera and every TV it was watched. And we worked hard on it, we worked for days. We mapped it all out, it was orchestrated like a performance.

There are some stars who are more than willing to play the game because they are not only promoting the project they are currently linked to, but they have to promote themselves as well. “I feel like we’re all punk right now by Channing Tatum and Zoe Kravitz,” Littley laughs. “They are so public and the actions they do in public lend themselves to food for the Internet. I mean, Channing was riding a bike with Zoe on her back. These are times the internet just eats up.

“I feel like they’re in the game,” adds Littley. “People are going to be speculating on their personal lives anyway, so they might as well try to take control of the narrative.”