Jessica Chastain thinks Hollywood needs to impose "quotas" to address the gender imbalance.

Jessica Chastain

Jessica Chastain

The 'Woman Walks Ahead' actress has vowed to work with at least one female director a year and thinks more people in the movie industry need to follow her lead in order to make things more equal for women.

She said: "There are self-imposed quotas we should be employing in the industry.

"Justin Trudeau, the Canadian prime minister, has 50% women in his cabinet. When they asked why,he said it was because it was 2015. Or the screenwriter and producer Ryan Murphy; half of his directors are women.

"I've given myself one too, to work with a female filmmaker every year. And I'm going to continue doing that until I see real change. We have to make quotas for ourselves."

And Jessica, whose new movie 'Woman Walks Ahead' details the real life encounter between a white artist and a Native Mexican, thinks other minority groups need to be pushed into the spotlight.

She told Grazia magazine: "I want movies about Asian-American actors, I want to see a film directed by an indigenous woman. What can I do for indigenous women? Because they really are the most ignored.

The 40-year-old actress was reluctant to speak out about sexism when she was younger, but has no such concerns now.

She said: " At the start of your career as an actress, you're too afraid to say anything because you're afraid to rock the boat.

"But once I started working I could see the same behaviour happening to other people. I found I was quicker to say, 'that is not good, don't do that.' "


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