Jessica Chastain has told how she loves acting so much she feels depressed when she is not working.

The 37-year-old actress shot to fame after starring opposite Brad Pitt in Terrence Malick's The Tree Of Life, which won the Palme d'Or award at Cannes in 2011, and went on to be nominated for an Oscar for her performances in The Help and Zero Dark Thirty.

But Jessica has admitted it was a hard struggle to get her big break and told the latest issue of Harper's Bazaar magazine: " Not working felt] a little bit like grief and I started to feel really negative about myself, down on who I am, and then I realised it's because I've had so much time away from me that I don't really know what I like to do any more. I'm out of it now, but there was this feeling of being sad or depressed... wanting to go to another project."

The Salome star went on: "There's something about when I go on set and play a character, even the more difficult characters are for me, the truth of who I am can come out and can be seen when a camera is looking at you... I learn about myself when I'm watching myself on-screen."

The full interview appears in the November issue of Harper's Bazaar, on sale October 1, or online at www.harpersbazaar.co.uk/jessica-chastain-november-issue-cover.