Jessica Chastain urges older actresses to take ownership of careers

Jessica Chastain believes actress have to become "more active in producing projects" as they get older.

The 46-year-old actress has had a remarkably successful few years, winning an Oscar and being nominated for a Tony and an Emmy, and Jessica believes her current success is due to her taking more ownership of the projects she is involved in.

Speaking to Vanity Fair's 'Little Gold Men' podcast, she said: "To have the most incredible past couple of years—and I have to say, the past couple years, it’s also been more of me producing the projects. That I find interesting. As women get older in the industry, we need to become more active in producing projects in order for us to have a place here—because no one else will do it for us. When you just said that—I’m speaking this for the first time out loud, so I haven’t really thought it through, but The 'Eyes of Tammy Faye', 'George Tammy', and 'A Doll’s House' were all projects that I was involved in behind the scenes and not just acting.

"Women are exploring other ways of creating their own work. But it also makes me a little bit sad that it’s necessary. I’m happy that I’m doing it. I love doing it, but I wish more people were interested in telling these stories and that these actresses wouldn’t have to do that."

Jessica also explained that she plans to work with more foreign filmmakers as she believes they are interested in women of all ages and not just young starlets.

She said: "This might be controversial to say. In 2011, a lot of directors were very excited about discovering me and shaping me. I’ve had great experiences, like working with Terry Malick. But there’s a sense when you are new to the scene as a woman, you’re very interesting for the male gaze. And as you become less new, you try to figure out how you fit in the industry, because a lot of the male gaze wants what is—they gravitate toward the new actress. I’m working with Michel Franco, who’s an incredible foreign film director; I have another project with him. I probably will seek out a lot more foreign filmmakers because I think they’re interested in women of all ages and of all stories and not interested in a Svengali saying, like, I am the creator of this artist. She’s an artist on her own, and I want to collaborate with her. It takes a very confident filmmaker—and man—to do that."