Jessica Chastain had a difficult childhood.
In a new interview with the Sunday Times, the star of “The 355” opened up about growing up in a poor family, with a single mom who struggled to care for her five kids.
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The actress admitted that she “grew up with a lot of resentment” due to her childhood in poverty.
“I don’t talk about it much, but it was really, um, it was not what you would expect,” she said. “When people see me, I think they expect a different background than I have.
“So because I come from that place, I know what it’s like. And it makes me angry. And I don’t [want] anyone else to be denied anything. In terms of a voice, being seen, being acknowledged and valued.”
The actress graduated from the Juilliard School of Performing Arts in New York, explaining that she worked at the school in order to attend, because her family couldn’t have afforded the tuition.
“There were people that saw I was struggling as a kid and they helped me. And that’s why I ended up where I am now,” she said.
Chastain also said that she was the first in her family “not be pregnant when she was 17,” and said not having a child so young gave her choices that she wouldn’t have otherwise had.
She did have a baby eventually, giving birth to her first child in 2018 at the age of 41, and a second child in 2020.
The actress added that she would like to see film shoots set up for cast and crew to bring their kids with them, and said she particularly felt for Chris Hemsworth, who missed his kids all while filming “The Huntsman”.
“Right now, as a society, I don’t believe we value fathers as much as we should,” Chastain said. “I think we have to understand that — and this is tough as a woman to say this — the father relationship is just as important as the mother relationship.”
