Jessica Chastain and Ralph Fiennes on The Forgiven and How They Prepare for an Emotional Scene

With writer-director John Michael McDonagh’s The Forgiven now playing in select theaters, I recently spoke to Jessica Chastain and Ralph Fiennes about making the film. Based on Lawrence Osborne’s 2012 novel of the same name, The Forgiven tells the story of two wealthy Londoners, David and Jo Henninger (Fiennes and Chastain), who, when driving through the Moroccan desert to a friend’s lavish weekend party, are involved in a tragic accident with a local teenage boy. Arriving late at the grand villa with the debauched party raging, the couple attempts to move on from the incident. But when the boy’s father arrives seeking justice, the stage is set for a tension-filled culture clash in which David and Jo must come to terms with their fateful act and its shattering consequences. The Forgiven also stars Matt Smith, Saïd Taghmaoui, Christopher Abbott, Abbey Lee, Mourad Zaoui, Caleb Landry Jones, and Ismael Kanater. During the interview, Fiennes and Chastain talked about what drew them to the project, wha