Jessica Chastain has called out Bryan Singer specifically, with respect to the ongoing issue of sexual abuse and harassment in Hollywood. As story after story continues to break about sexual harassment, assault, and other misconduct by powerful men in Hollywood, there have been whispers about when the shoe might drop in regards to certain men. Filmmakers James Toback and Brett Ratner have both been accused of sexual harassment/abuse by several people now, while Kevin Spacey has now been accused of similar vile behavior by Star Trek: Discovery actor Anthony Rapp and multiple House of Cards crew members, among others.
One of the more outspoken people in Hollywood, in regards to Harvey Weinstein and the other stories, has been Oscar-nominee Jessica Chastain. Chastain has been using both her Twitter account and interviews to call out Hollywood for the abuses and to express her support for victims. Now, Chastain is calling out another Hollywood luminary.
Related: Netflix Fires Kevin Spacey from House of Cards
Screen Rant spoke to Chastain at the press junket for her upcoming film Molly’s Game, and she had some words to say about the harassment story:
My current thoughts and feelings are I want to do whatever I can to support victims and to know that I believe them and that there’s a community of artist that are committed to creating safe work environments. And I think that the industry has not been running the way it should be running. I think it goes beyond gender. It goes to all facets of the industry. We need to be more inclusive and um, yeah. So, the thing I am excited about is I do believe that there’s a generation of [artists] who are done with the old ways of Hollywood with the Fatty Arbuckle, Jack Warner, you know, Louie B. Mayer, that kind of old [fashioned] idea of what Hollywood is, and is more interested in creating an industry that is safe and inclusive.
On Friday, the day before the junket, Chastain tweeted an article, from the conservative website Daily Wire, about director Bryan Singer, who has been accused of inappropriate behavior in the past. Afterward a responder pointed out that Chastain is in the cast of the upcoming X-Men: Dark Phoenix; Singer, who has directed several movies in the X-Men franchise, is listed as a producer of the film. Chastain answered in a subsequent tweet that she “didn't realize he was involved until recently,” and that “I had no dealings with him and he wasn't on set.”
When it comes to these cases, Singer’s is somewhat tricky. He was accused in 1997 of asking underage cast members to shower on his film Apt Pupil, but the lawsuit was dismissed. Singer was again sued, two separate times, in 2014, by different men, although both cases were eventually dropped. Whispers continue to persist, however. Singer has continued to work in the meantime; he is currently directing Bohemian Rhapsody, the long-in-the-works biopic of Queen frontman Freddie Mercury.
The truth about the Singer allegations remains unknown, although it’s likely that multiple reporters are chasing down the story as we speak. As for Chastain, just as it’s unfair to blame victims in cases of abuse, it’s not fair either to scour the IMDB pages of those who are outspoken about the issue, to see which alleged abusers they’ve worked with. Besides, isn't calling out alleged misdeeds by the producer of your movie more honorable than not doing so?
