Jessica Chastain chooses roles that inspire young women.

Jessica Chastain

Jessica Chastain

Chastain - who stars in the new sci-fi movie 'The Martian' - has revealed she's made a conscious decision to accept movie parts that encourage young girls to pursue their ambitions.

She told the Huffington Post: "I have to be careful when I'm choosing roles.

"I want little girls to watch 'The Martian' and say, 'I want to be the commander of a mission to Mars,' 'I want to be in this movie,' and [to see] that actually, it's OK -- you can have these desires to be a writer and fall in love and do all this, and you can actually save yourself."

Meanwhile, Jessica recently praised Oscar-winning actress Jennifer Lawrence after she spoke out about the gender pay gap in Hollywood.

She said: "I'm proud of her. Sometimes when you're doing well, you're afraid to say something's wrong because then there's going to be a bunch of people out there going 'OK, well, you're a big old movie star.' But it doesn't matter."

Jessica said it's wrong actors are paid more than their female counterparts for doing the same job in a movie.

The flame-haired actress added: "There's no excuse. There's no reason why she should be doing a film with other actors and get paid less than her male co-stars.

"It's completely unfair. It's not right. It's been happening for years and years and years. I think it's brave to talk about it. I think everyone should talk about it."


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