14 DAY TRIAL // Jessica Chastain was one of the big snubs in yesterday’s Oscars 2015 nominations announcement, but she’s not what you could call a “loser.” Last night, at the Critics’ Choice Awards 2015, she became the first-ever recipient of the MVP Award.
Her acceptance speech was memorable too, because it wasn’t just a long list of thankyous and enumeration of names no one but a handful of people know: it also highlighted the need for more diversity in showbiz.
That part comes at the end in the video below. If you can’t see it, it’s because A&E has blocked it in your country.
Saying that yesterday was Martin Luther King Jr.’s birthday, Jessica stressed the “need to build the strength of diversity in our industry and to stand together against homophobic, sexiest, misogynistic, anti-Semitic, and racist agendas.”
“Martin Luther King, Jr. said, ‘Our lives begin to end the day we become silent about things that matter’ and I would like to encourage everyone in this room to please speak up,” she added.
As she said this, the camera zoomed in on Oprah Winfrey and Ava DuVernay, the director of the critically acclaimed “Selma” and another big snub of this year’s Oscars. They were moved nearly to tears and were nodding in agreement to Jessica’s words. At the end of her speech, they applauded her with conviction, as did everyone else in the room.
