Jessica Chastain: 'Lobbyists are wrecking protests'

Jessica Chastain's research into her latest movie role has convinced her people are paid to undermine protest movements.

The actress plays a political lobbyist in her new movie Miss Sloane, and says she was entirely unaware about the tactics her character's real-life counterparts used before she took the part.

"I was really surprised by all the underhand manipulation that happens in the political system when trying to pass a bill or to kill a bill," she tells Britain's Daily Record newspaper. "When I look at protests and I see some ridiculous sign in the middle of the protest, which diminishes the whole message, I go, 'OK, that's a lobbyist-hired actor'."

The 40-year-old finished shooting the film in April last year (16), more than six months before Donald Trump became America's president.

Donald's policies, which include restricting women's access to healthcare and building a wall on America's border with Mexico, have sparked protests around the world.

Jessica feels that in many ways Miss Sloane's plot, which sees her character Elizabeth Sloane involved in the cut-throat and corrupt world of political lobbying, is now less absurd than the actual political situation.

"(When) we were making Miss Sloane, I thought we were making a piece of fiction, I thought it was an exaggerated view of what can go on in American politics, and what's a bit crazy is now, every day, it's just exaggerated politics!"

However the actress worked with a number of real political lobbyists to research her role and still feels the film has an important point to make about women's role in a corrupt political system.

She says her character, "Wants to intimidate the men in the room and the way to throw them off is by not embracing her femininity, not dressing in a soft, delicate way.

"She intimidates them by the sound of her heels clicking on the marble floor before she enters the room and her black nails. That's something I got from the D.C. lobbyists."

Miss Sloane is released in the U.K. on Friday (12May17).