Step Inside Jessica Chastain’s NYC Home

Jessica Chastain is an American actress and film producer. Known primarily for starring in films with feminist themes, she has received various accolades, including an Academy Award and a Golden Globe Award. She recently opened the doors of her NYC home to the team from Architectural Digest to take a peek inside her glorious abode.

According to Chastain, the secret to making complex characters come alive on screen is to have a simple “real life.” To create a suitably grounding home base, she and her boyfriend, fashion executive Gian Luca Passi de Preposulo, recently refurbished a 19th-century apartment close to New York’s Central Park. Their elegant redo has returned an address steeped in history to, in her own words, its “warm and cozy glory.”

A home with history

The unit’s seller was composer Adam Guettel, whose 1999 record Myths and Hymns Chastain played whenever she was homesick for the West Coast. “As soon as I found out it was him, I felt like it was meant to be,” she recalls.

She then learned that another previous occupant had been West Side Story composer Leonard Bernstein. (Yes, there is a fire escape!) The cabaret legend Bobby Short and TV star Larry Storch have each lived in the apartment, too, and the likes of Lynn Redgrave and Vera Miles have called the landmark building home.

“When I found out about all the other artists and actors who have lived here, I was in love,” Chastain says. And so in the winter of 2015, she became the apartment’s latest owner.

Jessica worked with designers Jesse Carrier and Mara Miller on the decor. “Soul retrieval was the real transformation here,” says Chastain of the revitalized space. “I have emotional connections to everything. And I want things to make me feel good when I’m around them.” Chastain, Passi, Carrier and Miller all worked together to give the home a respectful facelift full of the good vibes the actress was after.

The couple created their own reference folders and presented them to Carrier, who combined their efforts. “Jesse was able to make it all flow,” Chastain says, adding that she was very decisive. Passi, on the other hand, preferred to mull things over. Many of Chastain’s ideas came from places she has stayed around the world. This included New York’s Crosby Street Hotel and the Carlton hotel in Cannes.

The in-bedroom bathtubs of London’s Dean Street Townhouse were the inspiration for the tub in the master suite. “On those rare occasions when Jessica and Gian Luca are able to push pause, they can light a fire and relax,” Carrier explains. “From room to room there’s a warm, welcoming glow that’s meant to signify homecoming.” A blissful, warm and cosy retreat.