14 DAY TRIAL // Just like co-star Matt Damon, Jessica Chastain is again working with NASA on a very difficult mission, in the latest Ridley Scott-directed movie, “The Martian.” The two actually worked together before, though not for the same scenes, in Christopher Nolan’s “Interstellar,” another film in which Damon was left stranded on an inhospitable planet.
“The Martian” will be out on Friday, and both Damon and Chastain have been busy promoting it. Speaking with Radio Times, Jessica used the chance to bring to attention how the approach to presenting female characters has changed: today’s “sexy” women aren’t so because they’re dolled up or objectified, they’re so because they’re strong, smart and doing their best.
Chastain, who says she will only do movies in which the female lead is just as “interesting” as the male one, blames studios for assuming all these years that audiences only wanted to see women objectified on camera.
Examples to the contrary were right in front of them, though, from Sarah Connor in the original “Terminator” movies, to Ripley in “Alien” and the more recent Katniss Everdeen in “The Hunger Games.” They’re not wearing makeup and they’re not there to look pretty and do nothing: they’re there to do what they must to survive.
And that makes them hot, Jessica believes.
“If you look at the most incredible female roles, like Ripley in Alien, she is a very sexy woman but she’s not wearing a lot of make-up. She’s in a T-shirt and jeans. What’s sexy about her is how capable she is. Same with Jennifer Lawrence in Hunger Games - she’s not wearing a catsuit, either,” Chastain explains.