Jessica Chastain: I was told to calm down after speaking about Harvey Weinstein

8 December 2017

Jessica Chastain was told to "calm down" after she took a stand against disgraced producer Harvey Weinstein.

Jessica Chastain

The 40-year-old actress took to Twitter in October to share a series of tweets in which she claimed she was "warned" about the alleged behaviour of the producer, who has been accused of sexually harassing over 80 women in a 30-year period.

And now, Jessica has revealed that after sending the tweets, she received an email from a "well-known actor" who told her to stop speaking out on the social media site.

Speaking during an appearance on 'The Graham Norton Show' which airs on Friday (08.12.17), the 'Molly's Game' actress said: "I was tweeting a lot at the time and actually got an email from a well-known actor that said: 'Calm down'. I found that heartbreaking and can only think he didn't understand the movement that was happening."

In her tweets - which were sent on October 9 - Jessica revealed she had been made aware of 65-year-old Weinstein "from the beginning" of her career, and urged other men to speak up about what they may have witnessed.

She wrote: "I was warned from the beginning. The stories were everywhere. To deny that is to create an environment for it to happen again.

"Yes. Im sick of the media demanding only women speak up. What about the men? Perhaps many are afraid to look at their own behavior..... (sic)"

It comes after the 'Zero Dark Thirty' actress claimed in an interview last month that she had her own altercation with Weinstein 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.

She 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?"