As you may recall, Jessica Chastain gave an excellent speech on diversity when she was accepting the MVP Award at the Critics Choice awards last week. Jessica said, in part, that “Today is Martin Luther King Jr.’s birthday, so it got me thinking about our need to build the strength of diversity in our industry, and to stand together against homophobic, sexist, misogynistic, anti-Semitic and racist agendas.” Her speech was strong, thought-provoking and refreshing to hear, especially right after the Oscar nominations were announced and there was not one minority actor among the nominations. (Chastain was also snubbed during this year’s Oscar nominations, which was probably down to the late release date of A Most Violent Year.)
Well Chastain has followed up on her remarks, and she said that she’s been surprised by negative, racist responses. She remarked that the response from her colleagues has been overwhelmingly positive, though. Chastain also clarified that the entire film industry is at issue, not just the awards, which she calls “a symptom of the disease.”
“I’ve had really terrible people who are racists comment on the speech and say really terrible things,” she said in a recent interview, per CBS News. “I’m understanding that some people in this world, how much hate they can have.”
Although some drew a link between her speech and the 2015 Oscar nominations, which were criticized for the lack of diversity, Chastain said that wasn’t her intention and insisted that she was trying to draw attention to a much bigger issue.
“Some people had taken my speech and then made it about awards, like SAG Awards or Oscars. That’s not what my speech was about,” she explained. “To me awards are just a reflection. It’s just a symptom of the disease and the disease is in the industry. If we had more diversity in our films it would be reflected in diversity in the nominees.”
Despite the backlash, Chastain plans to speak out in the future and accepts that, as a member of the industry, she is “part of the problem.”
“We all need to work together to fix it,” the A Most Violent Year star said.
The more Chastain speaks, the more I like her. She just comes across as such a sincere, genuine person and I appreciate how matter-of-fact and outspoken she is. The thing is, she’s not encountering these bottom-feeders in real life, she’s getting comments online, where racists and scumbags can pose as multiple people and harass anonymously without fear of repercussion. Twitter especially needs to have stricter terms of service and more penalties for trolling, racism and harassment. Online comments are not a reflection of society, they are an entirely different animal.
Chastain is on Twitter, Instagram Facebook, and WhoSay, where she often posts photos of her sweet dog, Chaplin. (Thanks Kaiser!) Maybe she should let her assistant read the comments first and block and ignore all the scumbags before she has to deal with them.
People also has a new interview with Chastain. She’s close with her family and tragically lost her younger sister, then 24, to suicide in 2003. She also said she’s not in a hurry to get married. Chastain has been dating Italian model Gian Luca Passi de Preposulo since 2012. She called their relationship “terrific” and added “I’m not quite sure of what I want in my life, and who knows if marriage is part of it, so to me marriage is not an important thing.” She does say that she’ll have children “someday” though.
Chaplin is a star!
Photo credit: WENN.com. Chastain is wearing Saint Laurent at the photocall. Credit: WENN.com
I’m with Jessica on this. There is obviously a huge amount of racism and sexism in H’wood and the rest of the world. We have to keep working and talking. And yes, that dog is victorious at being glorious. Dogs are saving me this week, Here’s looking at you, BUBBLES.
She’s pretty.
Kevin Costner made some interesting comments about diversity if film as well.
I’ve always been on the fence about Chastain but honestly when actors are blunt and forthright about racism in Hollywood, it’s always a good thing IMO.
I’m kind of on the fence with her too. I don’t dislike her, but I don’t reeealllyy like her either. She seems like a nice enough person though, and a decent actress. I do like her comments on this as well.
I just really respect her for taking a hard stance and not prevaricating. Then she doubled down on it. So many actors and actresses would dance around the issue rather than run the risk of being snubbed in the industry. Especially someone like Chastain, who while an amazing actress (without doubt), is not exactly box office bait.
I like her. She seems smart and very talented. I agree with what she said.
Same. The more I read about Jessica Chastain, the more I like her. And she is right – the awards are a symptom of a bigger problem.
Think I’ll watch a couple of her movies on Netflix this weekend.
The more she speaks the more i like her, she is just brighter than you average hollywood star.
She’s definitely thought provoking and intelligent. She struck me that way when she first became famous, as well.
One of the things that I have always loved about being born and raised in this country is that we are a melting pot of different ancestry. Monotone really is not my bag.
Now that mind set is slowly chipping away and it makes me sad.
Jessica opened her mind and mouth to embracing and encouraging diversity and that is the response.
How can someone just go through life with so much hate.
You do wonder if the level of vitriol that exists in blogs, forums, etc would diminish if folks had to own what they are posting.
Glad she will continue to talk about these important issues.
She’s totally right. And it’s not shocking in the least that she’s gotten racist comments.
Maybe it’s slightly better than she wasn’t nominated this year. I feel slightly bad for the people who are going to win this year, since their award will always have the taint of the Great Awards Whiteout of 2015 hanging over them. But then again, it’s a bigger issue than that.
It really is alarming how some of the comments I’ve read on various social media sites (one just this morning on Instagram) are outright violent. It’s disturbing. I like Jessica as an actress and I also love that she’s not afraid to speak her mind away from work and about the industry she works in. That takes some courage to bring up uncomfortable issues and try to talk about solutions. And her dog is adorable! I find it funny that whenever I post photos of my dog and cat on Instagram they are a hit with people I don’t even know! Seriously, they are my most liked posts, especially my dog. It’s nice to be able to enjoy the fun things in life and have a little break from the serious things.
She started the fire, better get ready to face the heat! People who speak up are always the target of hate and ridicule from others who are insecure and jealous, but that shouldn’t stop her if she believes in what she is saying. I love her, classy lady and a great actress.
In Chris Rock’s SNL monologue, he said he spoke out in favor of gun control, and received so much threatening, violent, hateful backlash, he thought “I need a gun!” And semi joked that he will never take a stand publicly again. Wow
I always respected her as an actress but what she had to say raised my estimation of her as a human being by leaps and bounds.
I appreciate that she did it.
I’m sure there are many good and conscientious people in Hollywood, but it’s a case of evil happening because good people don’t speak up. They don’t want to raise a fuss, don’t want to anger casting directors, don’t want to be ‘that’ person so they zip their lips and pretend it’s not happening before their eyes.
Much like feminism was suddenly the hip thing to ask I’d love to see how male and female actors respond to a question about diversity in their field. If folks thought the feminism responses were agonizing I’m sure we’d see a lot of hand-wringing and postulizing about this topic. But we won’t…because people with money want this to go away as quickly as possible so they can get back to business as usual.
Good for her for taking one small stand and distinguishing herself from her colleagues.
“If we had more diversity in our films it would be reflected in diversity in the nominees.” She is exactly right. It’s not an awards problem, it’s an industry problem.
I’ve seen her in a few things and she’s a good actress, but I don’t feel a fandom for her like I do for other actors and actresses. But I think she’s awesome for speaking up on this and not backing down on it.
There are some sad, angry people out there who think spewing hate will make them feel better. It doesn’t.
You know who she reminds of? Mark Ruffalo. Inmensely talented (but slightly underrated), well-spoken, thought-provoking, SMART, all-around good human being. And they’ve both lost a sibling, wow. I bet they would get along really well, and understand each other.
I LOVE Mark Ruffalo, and found your comment very interesting.
I’m glad she’s continuing to take a stand and talk about this important issue. Hollywood needs more people like her.
Nah. She’s not saying something astonishing.
Hollywood always buy this director from that country and make a toned down version so they can have large audience.
Does she really think hollywood can have more diversity when the audiences never go see a single foreign movies?
I am huge fan and I totally admire her. She’s been speaking out on this topic, supporting POC/women in Hollywood for years now. She also tries to put her money where her mouth is; she was key in the hiring of Oscar Isaac, even though she doesn’t have that much clout. She’s incredibly nice to her fans as well.
Given all that, it was awful to read some of the blowback she got from the internet based on her not-that-controversial speech. I read some guy who said she had nice tits and she ruined it every time she opened her mouth. Then told her to STFU. Quite a few of the comments were like that. With the internet, it’s pretty brave of her to say something at all. Sometimes the internet is so depressing. 🙁
She deserves a HUGE round of applause for speaking up.
I really liked her before and now I love her.
She should ignore those nasty comments. Bunch of racist trolls who will write anything to get attention that they so desperately need.