Top 50 Jessica Chastain Quotes

My goal is that a girl will watch ‘The Martian’ or ‘Interstellar’ and think, ‘I want to be an astronaut or a quantum physicist.’ It’s important to show powerful women who are good at their jobs because young girls need those examples.

When I get a script that has the opportunity to create discussion and inspire young girls, I don’t want to say no to that… I just want to contribute.

I’m inspired by antiques. I look at things that have a wink to the past but are also reinterpreted in some way and made to feel modern… and maybe that’s what I am.

There’s a lot of criticism on how an actress is aging. Why do we do that with women? I work with a lot of men who take terrible care of themselves – they drink too much, or they eat too much. We need to allow women to age.

I can’t tell you how many incredible directors I long to work with, but then I look at their IMDb page, and they haven’t made a single movie about a woman.

I’ve had to learn how to say ‘no’ to offers.

There have been situations where I have lost movies because I’ve said, ‘This is not a fair deal,’ and I’ve walked away.

We have a long way to go in the world in all industries. If I’m in the situation where I have equal experience to the other actor and my role is just as significant, there is no reason why I should be paid less. It’s not really part of my world anymore, because I just won’t accept it.

You know, it’s recently come into focus for me why I want to be an actor: It’s because of the connection I feel to people.

If I get a role, it’s because I fought for it.

I always say I am a realist, and my mom says, ‘No, you just have anxiety.’

The power of ‘no’ means you’re educating people in how to treat you.

Green tea throughout the day is the healthiest thing I’ve discovered for me.

I love fall because I love the whole cuddling aspect of it, and a sweater dress has that vibe of I’m going to hunker down and be warm, but it’s also very feminine.

I’m so inspired by the women who are far braver than I am, who have come forward with their stories and risked everything to help others. What is important is that the voices of these women do not disappear. We must amplify them.

There is this immediate connection, this intimacy when you’re acting because there’s no room to be polite or shy. Also, as an actor I get to connect with women I’ve never met before.

I’m used to working really hard to get a role. I was always auditioning and talking my way into roles.

If I can help create empathy and balance in society, I’m going to do whatever I can to tell stories that subconsciously create that.

This is what the media does with women. You try to divide and conquer women so you can intimidate and victimise them. This is why they don’t make movies where a lot of women get to be on set together. It’s about dividing.

I’m a shadow whisperer: I hide in the shadows. And I tend to avoid places where I might get photographed and end up with my picture in the press.

When you take away healthcare from women, you’re keeping women out of the workforce because you’re eliminating their choice of when to start a family.

I cut school to read Shakespeare and to learn about that because, for the first time, I felt like I really discovered a passion – the passion of my life.

One of my goals is to play a villain in a Bond film. People ask me if I want to be a Bond girl, and I say, ‘No, I want to be the villain.’ I’m waiting for that call!

My favourite smell is the smell of cut grass, and the sound of sprinklers going on.

Funny how defined we are by how we present ourselves to the world.

I’m a true believer that you get out of something what you put into it.

I think, in the past, being brave – being powerful, being strong – were qualities that people associated with being masculine. And I think… no, I don’t think – I know that now we’re realizing they can be feminine, too.

My grandmother was my inspiration. She was the person who took me to the theater and encouraged me to act, and she’s the one who always believed in me.

My whole life, I wanted to be an actor. Perhaps the seed was planted when I saw Sigourney Weaver in ‘Alien’, wiping the floor with the men on the ship.

I do know that people treat me different with blonde hair than they do with red hair.

What I do now, when I’m taking on a film, I always ask about the fairness of the pay. I ask what they’re offering me in comparison to the guy. I don’t care about how much I get paid; I’m in an industry where we’re overcompensated for the work we do.

I can’t even open my eyes underwater.

For the most part, I was surprised by the representation of female characters onscreen. I do hope that when we include more female storytellers, we will have more of the women that I recognize in my day to day life.

I was excited that my films would finally see the light of day and people would see them. But I never imagined that such nice things would be said about a lot of my films.

I try not to fake anything.

I understood the importance of doing an Aaron Sorkin film. He’s a political filmmaker.

I’ve never been in New York for the whole time of Fashion Week.

I’m very much a hippie from Northern California.

I just don’t think of myself as a movie star – I’m an actress.

I’m very sensitive in real life. I cannot not cry if someone around me is crying. I will start to cry if someone is crying, even if it’s not appropriate. I have that thing in me, a weakness or sensitivity.

Making films can be very lonely, and that’s the part I don’t like. I don’t want to feel like I’m pressing ‘pause’ on my personal life to make a movie. I want to feel like I’m still creating relationships and things are moving forward.

I’ve spent my life being embarrassed.

In the characters that I play, I’m so involved in the look; it’s very, very important to me. Because how a person presents him or herself to the world, they’re saying something about themselves. It’s their first form of advertisement.

I have a feeling that very soon I’m going to fail very, very big. I’m going to try something and everybody’s going to be like, ‘What was she thinking?’

We know in our society, women are valued for their sexual desirability and not necessarily for what they have to say.

I look at all the ingredients of a film and say, ‘Is this a positive thing that I’m putting into the world? Is there honor and respect in the way the story is being told about them? And would they approve of that?’

I was the first one in my family to go to college.

Before, it was just about making the films – and now it’s releasing them. Which is a steep learning curve.

I talked to congressmen who really hate having to go to the many fundraisers, but they see it as a necessary part of their job.

If you’re one of the only women on a set – if it’s you and a bunch of men – you feel like your value doesn’t come from your thoughts and your talent and what you say: your value comes from how you look and how you’re perceived by the men around you.