Jessica Chastain Puts Hollywood in the Hot Seat for Lack of Female Diversity

Jessica Chastain beamed a spotlight on the war on women this morning, after she called out Hollywood for the absence of strong female roles in film and television.

The Zero Dark Thirty starlet urged that “times are changing,” as more women, such as Scarlett Johansson, prove to be huge contenders at the box office. She also pondered why Johansson has failed to receive her very own Marvel flick.

“To me, it’s a no-brainer, you want to make money, put Scarlett Johansson in a superhero movie!” she told TheWrap.

Furthermore, she is irritated that female characters are rarely fully developed in scripts.

“I think there is a huge problem in American cinema where stories about women aren’t nurtured and celebrated and brought to the screen as often as men,” she said in an interview with Vulture.

A study released by San Diego State University this year proved that Hollywood remains a man’s world. 100 of the top films of 2013 were carefully analyzed, and the results found female characters to be incredibly under-represented. 

A mere 15 percent were protagonists, 29 percent accounted for “major” characters, and only 30 percent of women had dialogue.

“Female characters were less likely than males to have identifiable goals or be portrayed as leaders of any kind,” the study read.

Cate Blanchett is another leading lady who seeks equality for women on screen. During her acceptance speech for “Best Actress” at the Academy Awards in March, she called out the sexist nature of the industry and contested that people want more female leads.

There have been an alarming number of surveys conducted throughout the years to highlight the lack of diversity that exists on all spectrums in Hollywood–and it’s not restricted to gender.

“It’s a fact, the majority of films in Hollywood are from the male perspective,” Chastain continued. “And the female characters, very rarely do they get to speak to another female character in a movie, and when they do it’s usually about a guy, not anything else. So they’re very male-centric, Hollywood films, in general.”