Jessica Chastain may have a mega successful acting career now, but things weren’t always easy for the Hollywood actress.

Chastain opened up in an interview with Entertainment Weekly and confessed a few secrets that people don't know about her past. She said, “Nobody knows this about me. I dropped out of high school. I was not a hard worker. I was a terrible student. Eventually I got my adult diploma, but I did not graduate. 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.”

The Zero Dark Thirty actress explained her reasoning for not attending her high school classes saying, “I would cut school and sit in my car, reading Shakespeare.” Things started to change in a positive way for her and at the age of 22, she was accepted into The Julliard School. She said, “I got to Juilliard and I’d never been around literature like that. It completely opened me up.”

The 2012 Golden Globe Best Actress winner for her role in Zero Dark Thirty even gave some advice for those who are struggling and need guidance. “I thought that I wasn’t an intelligent person because I did so poorly. There are kids out there that aren’t doing well in school and I hope they never think it means they’re stupid.” She added, “It’s all about finding where your interest lies and finding what you’re good at.”

Chastain is nominated this year for a Golden Globe in the Best Supporting Actress category for her role in A Most Violent Year. The 72nd Golden Globe Awards air this Sunday, live at 8pm ET on NBC.

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