Jessica Chastain Quotes

Every time an actress is celebrated for her great work, I cheer.

For the more brilliant their performance, the more the audience demands stories about women... And as we all know: a great year for women in film, is just a great year for film.

I think that with any emotion - fear, love, nervousness - if the actor's feeling it, then the audience feels it.

If someone does something bad to you, you do something worse to them so they never mess with you again.

Look, if anyone is scared, I got your back.

Put others before yourself, unselfish love, do unto others as you would have done to you.

An actress friend of mine shared a great trick.

She told me to stick my tongue behind my teeth when I smile to keep from over-smiling. If you smile without doing it, sometimes your gums show a little too much. It's an actor's trick!

I feel very inspired right now because I know there are a lot of people out there who are really scared but I feel this great sense of togetherness and people coming together and saying, "I got your back."

Women perform great in the box office. Audiences want to see lead female characters.

To a female superhero her sexiness is not the most important thing about her, it's her mind, her spirit, and when I look at that character that to me is an example of characters that I like to play and I think it does a great thing for women.

Okay, I'm going to let you in on a little secret: I'm a very superstitious person. I'm walking onto the plane as we speak. I'm putting my hands on the outside of the plane and my feet are on the lip of the plane. I have to do it every time before I fly.

I've actually been given a great gift.

When I walk into an audition with a director, I'm carrying no baggage. They haven't seen me in anything, even though I've done nine films.

I'm very sensitive in real life. I cannot not cry if someone around me is crying. I will start to cry if someone is crying, even if it's not appropriate. I have that thing in me, a weakness or sensitivity.

I'm very much a hippie from Northern California.

I find that the monsters are usually the people that I have the most empathy for because they're the ones that are hurt the most. There's a reason why they're the monsters.

I love fall because I love the whole cuddling aspect of it, and a sweater dress has that vibe of I'm going to hunker down and be warm, but it's also very feminine.

Broadway has always been a dream of mine.

I have problems because I'm very expressive, and usually red lipstick gets on my teeth and face.

I don't want to torture anything. It's about trying to live a life where I'm not contributing to the cruelty in the world... While I am on this planet, I want everyone I meet to know that I am grateful they are here.

There is this immediate connection, this intimacy when you're acting because there's no room to be polite or shy. Also, as an actor I get to connect with women I've never met before.

Robin Williams was the kind of generous person who would do things but not want to receive public credit for it.

I don't really drink, and I've never been to a rave.

I used to cut school to read Shakespeare, not to make out in the park.

Before, it was just about making the films - and now it's releasing them.

Which is a steep learning curve.

I think you have to take the whole idea of wage equality out of the film industry.

I love being around great actors and film-makers, and I try to hide the fact that I'm in awe of them.

I always say I am a realist, and my mom says, 'No, you just have anxiety.'

Look at Hispanic women - they are being paid 42 cents on the dollar - or African-American women. I think it's an issue we have to look at across the board.

I am the first one in my family to go to college and I felt a great responsibility when I was at school, because my family was making so many sacrifices for me to be there. I was raised by a single mother, my grandmother got on the plane and helped me move to New York and moved me into the dorm. It was just a big moment, and, yes, it was my dream to be an actress, but also I didn't want to let them down.

I'm inspired by people who are so sensitive and vulnerable that they try to cover it up.

Any man that dates me, the thing they're gonna have to live up is my dad - he's a real hero.

People were confused by me, and at first I was auditioning a lot for the crazy characters or the victim, someone who'd been attacked. Which is great, because usually those are the best acting roles.

I just want to do what I feel is right in my heart.

It's tough, acting. You have to walk two lines of a tightrope. There's the all-consuming fear of failure: I'm about to fall flat on my face. There's that and there's also confidence - you have to be confident in order to try things - and they fight each other all the time.

I didn't understand how much senators and members of the House are not able to represent the people because they're too busy fundraising to maintain their seat in office. I hope we as a country start looking at how we can change that.

I no longer think in terms of, Ooh, this is a great role and what is it going to do for - actually, I've never really thought about what something is going to do for my career.

Maybe that's because there are so few women lobbyists;

if they're there, it's for something they strongly believe in, not just for financial gain.

I spent a lot of the last five years on a set, and every once in a while you take stock of your life and look at what you're doing.

My grandmother used to say, "Sometimes the loudest person in the room doesn't know what they're talking about." Or isn't secure enough in his or her own views to be able to listen to others.

I was excited that my films would finally see the light of day and people would see them. But I never imagined that such nice things would be said about a lot of my films.

Someone doesn't think immediately, "I want to be a lobbyist."

I'm the unknown everyone's already sick of.

I take great responsibility in any character that I play.

We need more points of view from women and we need more support for female directors and writers in the industry.

It's okay to be ambitious, it's okay to be over-prepared.

When you're on a Terrence Malick film, it's like you're part of a family.

I am the worst at keeping secrets. I am the kind of person that the second I buy someone a Christmas present, I tell them what I bought them. I don't wait until Christmas. I'm not good at it.

I don't want people to look at me.

I want to be involved in a story that makes a difference.

If you don't fully take every moment and love every moment and every person that you're with, your life will be over before you realise.

I'm the kind of person [who] when I'm doing a play, and even when I'm working, I don't do anything else. When I'm working, I just work.