Jessica Chastain has called for ”more women in positions of power” within the film industry.
The 40-year-old actress believes that following on from the sexual misconduct scandal surrounding disgraced producer Harvey Weinstein – who stands accused of sexually harassing over 80 women in a 30-year period – Hollywood needs to start employing more females in positions such as filmmakers and producers, in order to create a ”safe place” for women to work.
She said: ”Like a safe place in this industry for women to go if something has happened to them. And we need movie studios with a board that’s not one gender. More women filmmakers, writers and producers. The one huge thing that we’ve never tried in Hollywood is putting more women in positions of power.”
The ‘Molly’s Game’ star insists she had her own altercation with Weinstein, 65, after he tried to get her to set him up with her friend, and thinks that Hollywood as a whole have been ”complicit” in letting his alleged actions slide.
Speaking to ES magazine, Jessica said: ”Yeah, he tried to get me to pimp out my best friend Jess Weixler. Like very flirtatious, ‘Oh I’ve got such a crush on her – you got to help me.’ He’s incredibly friendly but also very volatile. He normalised the abuse.
”But everyone in this industry is complicit. We’re all part of the problem. I heard the rumours even before I entered the industry. So we have to ask ourselves, why was it okay? Why are agents sending actresses to meetings in hotel rooms?
”It goes back to the days of Fatty Arbuckle, Louis B Mayer, Jack Warner. Shirley Temple said in her biography that when she was 12, a producer pulled out his penis! So we can look at Harvey as though he was the cancer or we can be realistic. He’s not the disease, he’s the symptom.”
Jessica’s full interview appears in this week’s edition of ES Magazine, which hits shelves on Thursday (30.11.17).