Jessica Chastain didn't touch Eddie Redmayne's Oscar because she "felt superstitious".
The Eyes of Tammy Faye star claims her Academy Award is the "first time" she's ever touched after she refused to handle the one her 40-year-old actor friend won for his Best Actor performance as astrophysicist Stephen Hawking in The Theory of Everything at the 2015 ceremony.
Speaking to reporters after her Best Actress win on Sunday night (March 27), the 45-year-old actress said: "I still can't understand that I'm holding an Oscar. This is the first time I've held an Oscar. I'm friends with Eddie Redmayne, and I've been to his house in London. Everyone was like, 'Oh, look. His Oscar,' and they all picked it up. I was like, 'I can't pick it up!' I felt superstitious."
Jessica revealed that she had no clue where she would store her gong but she would give it the "respect" the accolade deserves.
She said: "So this is the very first time I've even held it. I have had no thoughts of where it is going to go, but I will respect it for sure wherever it is."
The Zero Dark 30 star - who also produced the movie and beat out Kristen Stewart, Olivia Colman, Penelope Cruz and Nicole Kidman - admitted that her win was "very meaningful" for her as she has wanted to tell the story of the superstar televangelist and her first husband Jim Bakker - who was played by Andrew Garfield - for a decade.
Jessica said: "It was 10 years ago that I got the rights to tell this story. I think that was the first year I was nominated for an Oscar. You know, I had seven films come out in 2011, so to be at the awards ceremony in 2012 was the beginning of my career. And to be here 10 years later with a film I bought the rights to, that I kind of willed into existence is incredibly meaningful."
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Jessica felt it was "very special" to be a part of the reclaiming of Tammy Faye's narrative - who died in 2007 - and how she was in contact with her children, Tammy Sue, 65, and Jay Bakker, 46.
She said: "Also it's very special to be part of a film that means something to me in that it rights an injustice and it reexamines a life. It is so important to give each other our flowers when we're alive. I feel like we missed that opportunity with Tammy Faye. So it is very special to me.
"I was texting with her children during the ceremony. I kept texting them. It's a beautiful, beautiful moment, and it means so much to me in terms of my profession, but also in terms of my life and what I'm putting out into the world."
