Jessica Chastain and Peter Sarsgaard’s Experience on ‘Memory’: No Trailer? No Makeup? No Problem

Early in his casting process, Mexican director Michel Franco feels obligated to deliver a warning to his actors.

“I ask them if they know how I work,” the auteur behind uncompromising, challenging films like “New Order” and “Chronic” told TheWrap. “I tell them, ‘I don’t have trailers on my movies. I don’t have hair and makeup. I don’t do coverage. And these actors were fine with that.”

“These actors” are Jessica Chastain and Peter Sarsgaard, the stars of Franco’s “Memory.” Chastain, who reported to work not long after winning the Best Actress Oscar for “The Eyes of Tammy Faye,” plays Sylvia, a single mother who lives in New York City, works at an elder-care facility and is haunted by a string of sexual assaults in her childhood.