Jessica Chastain Knocks CBS For Lack Of Female Inclusivity

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Not only is Jessica Chastain one of the best actresses of her generation, what with her incredible turns in “Zero Dark Thirty” and “The Tree of Life,” among many other great performances, but she has also been an outspoken activist when it comes to the discrimination faced by women in Hollywood. One of the more important issues she has fought for has been equal pay in the industry, for which she had this to say just last year: “I think people know if they’re going to hire me I’m not going to just be grateful. There have been situations where I have lost movies because I’ve said, ‘This is not a fair deal,’ and I’ve walked away.” Also recommended is an incendiary opinion column she wrote for The Hollywood Reporter back in 2015 in which she castigated Hollywood on the gender imbalance problem that has been plaguing their productions for decades.

READ MORE: Jessica Chastain “Disturbed” By Depiction Of Women At 2017 Cannes Film Festival

It is not surprising then that she would eventually chime in on the recent controversy CBS has been facing since releasing their upcoming fall schedule. The network has been openly criticized for not having any shows with a female lead on their upcoming schedule. CBS senior executive vice president of programming Thom Sherman told reporters that there were promising pilots featuring female leads, but they just weren’t as good as the male-lead ones: “The way things turned out, those pilots were not felt to be as good as some of the other series that were picked up … That’s just the cycle of business and how it happens sometimes.”

In her latest bout with Hollywood execs, Chastain went on Twitter to condemn CBS execs for their lack of diversity, tweeting: “I’ll just @netflix and chill. Or some @HBO greatness. Or anything by #RyanMurphy. There’s so many incredible options that don’t include @CBS.”  Ouch, maybe a little too honest, but her opinion has definitely been heard loud and clear and, who are we kidding here, we fell in-love with Chastain not just because she’s an incredibly talented actress, but also because of how down-to-earth and honest she can be when facing important social issues.  Go Jess.