Jessica Chastain Responds to Steamy Viral Red Carpet Moment With Oscar Isaac

After Jessica Chastain and Oscar Isaac’s jaw-dropping on-screen chemistry manifested onto the Venice Film Festival red carpet, the Oscar-nominated actress is breaking her silence over the viral moment with an image reminiscent of the steamy exchange that sent fans in a tizzy. While promoting their new HBO limited series, Scenes From a Marriage, on Sept. 4 in Venice, the pair went viral for a very sensual moment, finding Isaac caressing Chastain’s arm and ultimately kissing her armpit before the two laughed. 

Setting social media ablaze with comments from users stating how the moment was “quite literally the sexiest thing” ever seen, the 44-year-old actress responded to the viral moment on Monday morning with an image of Gomez and Morticia Addams from the ’60s television series, The Addams Family alongside the date “September 12th” for her HBO series premiere.

With fans taking to the comments section wondering how she could keep a straight face for so long over the rather ticklish-looking moment, others admitted the “promo worked,” with fans now officially hyped for the premiere to drop next week. The five-part limited series premiering Sept. 12 is the modern adaptation of Ingmar Bergman’s classic Swedish series of the same name. Through the lens of a contemporary American couple, the series will re-examine martial issues seen in the original that explore several themes, including love, hatred, desire, monogamy, marriage and divorce. Mining the complexities of relationships through the eyes of Jonathan (Isaac) and Mira (Chastain), the couple recognizes how their marriage isn’t exactly torn apart by one single event or flaw, while confronting their own feelings between hate and love.

Written and directed by Hagai Levi of Our Boys, The Affair and HBO’s In Treatment, Chastain and Isaac spoke out about their roles in the limited series to Deadline, revealing it was an “intense” one to make. “It felt incredibly exposing,” Chastain said. “It was hard to go home and leave it at work. Part of myself was in it.”

The two, who are both happily married to their respective partners, further shared how the HBO series posed some unique challenges during some very intense scenes, even though they have been longtime friends since Julliard and co-starred in 2014’s A Most Violent Year. “We would joke that [the friendship] is a blessing and a curse. It’s a blessing because there’s immediate trust. You don’t have to be worried about offending,” she said. “You can be very honest. The difficult thing is that, at times, we were reading each other’s minds. It was like, ‘get out of my head.’ So, I felt on this job there was no quiet time.” 

Isaac, echoing Chastain’s sentiments, admits it’s all the more beneficial when you “know someone so well because you don’t have to worry about a lot of stuff you usually worry about.” However, he adds that being as intense as it was can also be hard because you care about the individual. “It’s like working with family,” Isaac said. “If you didn’t know someone so well, getting your own space isn’t so hard.”

Scenes From a Marriage premieres Sept. 12 on HBO. For more on this story and all the best viral moments, keep it locked to PopCulture.com for the latest.