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Jessica Chastain on why she dropped out of high school

By Staff Writer 09/01/2015 05:10:00

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LOS ANGELES, Jan. 9 (UPI) -- Two time Academy Award-nominee Jessica Chastain recently revealed she was't always a "hard worker."

While detailing her life before Hollywood stardom to Entertainment Weekly, the 37-year-old actress confessed she dropped out of high school because she was a "terrible student."

"Eventually I got my adult diploma, but I did not graduate," said the actress, who later on attended Juilliard on a scholarship from Robin Williams. "And it wasn't that I just dropped out and never went back -- at the end of the year I had too many absences to graduate."

An artist at heart, Chastain admits that she would "cut school and sit in [her] car, reading Shakespeare." It wasn't until after she enrolled in the prestigious performing arts conservatory that she became interested in school.

"I'd never been around literature like that," she says. "It completely opened me up."

The actress hopes that sharing her experience will help others realize that just because someone doesn't do well in school, doesn't mean they're "stupid."

"I thought that I wasn't an intelligent person because I did so poorly," she says. "It's all about finding where your interest lies and finding what you're good at."

Chastain will next star in Guillermo del Toro's thriller Crimson Peak along with Charlie Hunnam.