Jessica Chastain on Speaking Up About Harvey Weinstein: ‘I’m Really Terrified I’m Destroying My Career’

Jessica Chastain received a Golden Globe nomination for her role in “Molly’s Game” yesterday, which didn’t surprise many awards prognosticators. The actress herself was taken aback, however, as she feared that her outspokenness on sexual harassment in the film industry would incite backlash. In a New York Times interview, Chastain even says she’d privately told friends that “I’m really terrified I’m destroying my career right now.”

“I’m mainly surprised about my nomination. As an actor, I have a lot of fear, thinking that if I speak my mind, or something that feels like it deviates from the norm as a woman, am I going to be made to disappear in my industry?” she tells the paper of record.

“When the article came out about Weinstein, I immediately started tweeting. I’ve got a good group of girlfriends on WhatsApp, and I said, ‘I’m really terrified I’m destroying my career right now. I wonder if people will still see me as an actress, and want to work with knowing I have these opinions.'”

Chastain continues, “In the way that only good girlfriends can do, they helped me eliminate fear and understand that the only way to change something that’s wrong is to change it, not ignore it. And rather than saying it’s an industrywide issue, it’s more than that. It’s a society wide issue. We can’t ignore farmworkers or women who have been invisible.” Read her full interview here.