The actress, whose full name is Chase Infiniti Payne, is a Hollywood newcomer. The 25-year-old actress's first major role is in the Paul Thomas Anderson action thriller where she stars as Willa, the daughter of Leonardo's Pat and TeyanaTaylor's Perfidia Beverly Hills. When her parents' revolutionary group breaks apart, Willa's entire life changes.
The film follows Willa as she defends her life and searches for her dad. But who is Chase Infinity and how did she land a role in the film of the year alongside Academy Award winners? Here's everything HELLO! knows about the young actress.
Chase was named after Nicole Kidman's in Batman Forever
Chase was born and raised in Indianapolis, Indiana to Keith Irvin Payne and KimberlyAble. Her parents knew she was destined for fame, naming her after Nicole Kidman's role of Chase Meridian, in the 1995 film Batman Forever.
"When my parents were coming up with my name, they had watched Batman Forever and they were obsessed with Nicole [Kidman] as Chase Meridian," the actress explained in a recent Today show interview.
In the superhero film, Nicole played a criminal psychologist. Chase told the Today hosts: "[My parents resolved that their child had] to be named Chase." For her middle name, she explained that her parents were inspired by "a phrase from [Toy Story]."
"My parents were like, 'Oh my gosh, to infinity and beyond,'" Chase went on, sharing that her middle name comes from Buzz Lightyear's catchphrase.
Chase graduated from high school in 2018, where she was involved in music and theater. She went on to attend Columbia College Chicago, graduating in 2022. While living in Chicago, Chase got into kickboxing, a trait that she utilized while filming One Battle After Another.
Her character, Willa, is supposed to be a purple belt. "I cannot say I'm purple-belt status, but I think I got decent," Chase told Vanity Fair in August 2025.
Because of the COVID pandemic, her career blossomed
When she was a sophomore in college, Chase's classes were moved online due to the COVID pandemic. Instead of crumbling under the stress, Chase decided to sign up for an on-camera acting class. The actress told Vanity Fair that her professor told her to consider pursuing a film career.
"I was like, 'Oh yeah, sure, whatever,'" she explained. "It'd be great if I could say one line in a movie or one line in a TV show—then I'd be happy." But, Chase was a natural. At her 2022 senior showcase, she caught the attention of a manager.
"I thought he was a scam at first," she told the outlet. "It was too easy—there's no way I'd get that lucky day one."
Although the early days of her career weren't as successful as she hoped, Chase quickly landed a role of a lifetime.
For the role of Jaden Sabich, Chase starred as the daughter of another Hollywood A-lister, Jake Gyllenhaal. The Apple TV+ miniseries follows Jake as Rusty Sabich, a prosecutor who becomes the prime suspect in the murder of his former lover.
Chase's character struggles with her dad's scandal, leading to a major twist that no viewers saw coming.
While filmingPresumed Innocent, Chase learned that she landed the role in One Battle After Another. "I did six months of auditioning for the film while I was working on my first project, Presumed Innocent," she told The Guardian. "And about a month after that, the casting director called me and was like: 'Hey, Paul [Thomas Anderson] would love to do an in-person callback, and it's going to be a chemistry read with Leonardo and Regina Hall.'"
She is set to star in the follow up to The Handmaid's Tale
Chase's next role continues her journey of the dark-genre she's been traveling on. She will star as Agnes in The Testaments, the sequel series to The Handmaid's Tale. The series will premiere in April 2026, and per the official logline, "is a coming of age story that finds a new generation of young women in Gilead grappling with the bleak future that awaits them."
"It's a side of Gilead that you really don’t see in Handmaid's Tale," Chase told Vanity Fair. "There's a certain lightness that The Testaments has that everybody is trying very hard to maintain. I think that is what makes it so special—it has a very different tone."
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