Jessica Chastain recently appeared at the Venice Film Festival to promote her upcoming film Memory, a move that made Chastain “incredibly nervous” to do.
Chastain speaks about ongoing strike
Similar to stars of the film Priscilla and Adam Driver, Chastain was a member of a film that was given an interim waiver from SAG-AFTRA, allowing them to attend and promote their films. Despite that, Chastain said, she was still “incredibly nervous” to appear while her fellow actors were on strike. The actress even noted that “some people on my team advised me against it.”
Despite that, Chastain did go to the event, and spoke about how actors are often told to be grateful for their careers, which is what she believes contributes to “workplace abuse” going unchecked for so long.
“I’m very aware of how lucky I am. It’s a wonderful profession what we get to do as actors,” Chastain said to The Hollywood Reporter. “And we are quite often because of that made to feel like we have to be quiet in order to protect future working opportunities. And we are often told and reminded how grateful we should be. That is the environment that I think has allowed workplace abuse to go unchecked for many decades. And it’s also the environment that has saddled members of my union with unfair contracts.”
Chastain — who was wearing a SAG-AFTRA shirt at the event — went on to discuss the strike, saying that when independent producers are granted interim agreements, they let the world know that actors “deserve a fair compensation.”
“I am here because SAG-AFTRA has been explicitly clear that the way to support the strike is to post on social media, walk the picket lines and to work and support interim agreement projects,” said Chastain. “It’s what our national board and our elected leadership has asked us to do. And when independent producers like the ones here sign these interim agreements, they are letting the world know and letting the AMPTP know that actors deserve a fair compensation, that AI protections should be implemented and there should be sharing of streaming revenue.”
“So I hope being here today encourages other independent producers and encourages actors to show up and support our union members. And hopefully we’ll see an end to this strike soon. And hopefully the AMPTP will go back to the table.”/emb
