- The Washington Times - Sunday, April 2, 2017

Oscar-nominated actress Jessica Chastain said she hopes that Hollywood — and the culture at large — comes to a point soon where women are valued more for their words than their looks.

“Society as a whole values a woman for her appearance and values a man for his mind,” Miss Chastain told The Washington Times recently while promoting her new film, the Holocaust drama “The Zookeeper’s Wife.” “We need to get to a point where a woman is valued for what she has to say, not for what her hair looks like.”

While Miss Chastain said that many of her colleagues in the industry are sympathetic to the notion of getting more women behind the camera, “talk is cheap,” she said.

“There are so many people I know in the industry that speak out for diversity in filmmaking. You have to put it into action,” she said. “Have they ever produced a film with a female director? Have they ever made a film that had a female protagonist?”

Miss Chastain turned 40 last month, an age when, in youth-obsessed Hollywood, actresses have too often been regarded as being past their prime.

“I’ve never thought of women in terms that way,” Miss Chastain said. “I’ve always thought that women need to be the decision-makers.”

• Eric Althoff can be reached at twt@washingtontimes.com.

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