Jessica Chastain has dedicated much of her career towards highlighting and fixing the sexism that can sometimes feel unescapable in Hollywood. Women have been sexually abused, harassed, neglected in the director's chair as well as in writing rooms, so when the Molly's Game actress appeared on The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon on Thursday, she decided to prove to the host how this sexism makes its way on screen. Specifically, she brought in some examples of Hollywood scripts and had herself and Fallon swap roles — she would read for the man, and he would read for the woman. Let's just say it was eye-opening.
AdvertisementADVERTISEMENT
"I'm really excited to be a part of the movement for better female representation, because female roles have been so underwritten, especially compared to male roles," she told Fallon to cheers from the audience.
Case in point: the first script has a man and woman bumping into each other on the street. It's clearly the start of a romantic comedy, but any spark has been totally ruined by that fact that the male character won't. Stop. Talking. Fallon can't manage to get a word in edgewise, and is repeatedly interrupted.
"I barely got to speak," Fallon said once the scene concluded.
"Exactly," Jessica replied.
It just gets worse from there. The second scene is more of an action film, with the two characters in the middle of a chase. To escape the bad guys, Chastain gives a long and complicated plan, and the scene ends before Fallon even gets any lines.
You get the gist, by now. Even the scene in which the female part does get more lines, she's immediately dismissed by the man. While these scripts might not be from real movies, they are based on tropes and dialogue that we see time and time again, and often accept as normal because we're just used to seeing women not get the parts they deserve. Until now. In the words of the 300 women in Hollywood who created the movement and the countless donors: Time's Up.
Watch the full video below:
AdvertisementADVERTISEMENT