Jessica Chastain Clarifies Her Meryl Streep Quotes, Says We Need More Roles for Women in Film

Actress says she wasn't bashing the three-time Oscar winner

By Brett Malec Oct 08, 2014 4:25 PMTags
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Jessica Chastain is clearing the air!

The 37-year-old actress recently gave an interview to Glamour in which she talked about Meryl Streep's illustrious career. However, Chastain's point of view was a bit overshadowed by critics who thought she was actually bashing Streep.

When asked about championing women in Hollywood, the Oscar nominee told the mag, "I'm really, really supportive of women in Hollywood. I love Meryl Streep. She's such an incredible actress. But I feel like she's the only one in her age group who gets those parts. I'd like to see Jessica Lange in a movie again, you know? Or Susan Sarandon. Why isn't Viola Davis a lead in a film? She's one of the greatest actresses alive. And where are the Asian actors and actresses? I'm not saying, ‘We don't want movies about men.' I'm just saying, ‘Come on, all the men I know love women. So let's also have some stories about these women. Let's write something for them, guys—and let's make room for women writers, too.'"

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Fast forward to this morning. Chastain took to Instagram to clarify her quotes and make sure fans know she wasn't talking trash about Streep.

"Page Six gets it terribly wrong," she wrote, referencing one specific outlet's coverage of her interview. "The headline is upsetting and against my thinking. I would never want to take roles away from a great actress. My point has always been: Why can one great actress of a certain age get roles in film? We need MORE roles in film for the many OTHER great actresses. It speaks to the lack of diversity in our industry."

Chastain also captioned the Instagram message with, "I [love] social media #myownvoice."

And there you have it.