Jessica Chastain has "never been good" at "keeping the status quo".
Jessica Chastain
The 44-year-old actress felt like her movie 'The Eyes of Tammy Faye' - based on the 2000 documentary of the same name about late TV star, singer and evangelist Tammy Faye Messner - was a story that "needed to be told".
Speaking to DuJour magazine, she said: "[It was] the most difficult thing I’ve ever done and the scariest thing I’ve ever done.
"But I did it because it needed to be told. I’m not very good at toeing the line and keeping the status quo. I’ve never been good at that.”
The inspiration to do more for women in film came in 2012 after the 'Zero Dark Thirty' star realised the variety roles available were "a tad limiting in terms of what people were offering".
She explained: "I immediately saw there weren’t a lot of options for women, at least in terms of great characters that are different. Actresses were regulated to a single type."
While she knows that taking on the projects she's offered might be simpler, she would much rather be taking chances and using her own position in Hollywood to "do something positive for others".
She added: "Creating [film and television] is a lot of work. There are so many headaches on the producing side.
"It’s so much easier when someone sends you a script. But I’ve never been the person who says to go with the status quo.
"I’d studied the industry for a long time. If I’ve been given this golden ticket, I understand how lucky I am to do what I do.
"For me not to use my platform to do something positive for others just feels irresponsible.”
Jessica insisted while she sometimes has "crazy ideas", they're worth pursuing.
She said: "I have these ideas that we have to push against an old-fashioned way the film industry has worked.”
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