Many out there think prominent celebrity liberal Jessica Chastain—flame-haired beauty and fine actress although she is—talks way too much about female empowerment and politics to the detriment of her movie career.
(Chastain recently kept telling everyone who would listen she was going on the Women’s March on Washington in January and has two production companies advancing women’s issues-friendly projects.)
Turns out one of her former bosses in the movie business would like her to dial the sexism talk down. Chastain told American Way magazine: “I had one male director say to me that I talk too much about all of this ‘women stuff’. This is a person I love, and maybe he was concerned I would hurt my career.
“I’m not attacking anyone. I’m trying to create more inclusiveness, compassion and empathy — which in turn makes better movies, better art.”
Chastain , 39, wouldn’t name names. So who was this wise owl—or movie-directing misogynist, depending on your perspective?
The prime suspect, according to a producer, who has met Chastain on several occasions, is director Ned Benson. “They dated for many years and made The Disappearance of Eleanor Rigby together,” said the producer speaking on anonymity. “She probably still loves him but they did make the movie four years ago.
“In a different way, she also loves John Madden, who directed her last movie [Miss Sloane] and one of her breakthrough roles [The Debt], but he’s a left-wing socialist so probably wants her to talk more about feminism.
“I can’t believe Ridley Scott [who directed Chastain in The Martian] and Christopher Nolan [who directed her in Interstellar] would take much of an interest in what she says about the subject. My money’s on Ned Benson.”
We can only speculate who the filmmaker was. But instead of calling his words out, Chastain might like to dwell on what the director was trying to say and the wisdom of keeping her politics onscreen.