Jessica Chastain vowed that a “major change is coming” in the movie industry as she accepted an award at the Palm Springs International Film Festival on Tuesday (02Jan18).
The double Oscar nominee was presented with the Chairman’s Award for her work in Molly’s Game by its director and writer Aaron Sorkin, and in her acceptance speech, the outspoken advocate for equality referenced the sexual misconduct scandal which hit Hollywood in 2017 and promised much-needed change was on its way.
“I want to acknowledge what a difficult year 2017 has been for all of us. Major change is coming. Change is good. Change is needed,” she said, according to The Hollywood Reporter. “We are all in this together. Each one of us is diminished by flawed systems. Through our joint efforts, we will make things better. We must make things better. We must be better – and we will.”
Her speech came just days after she donated to the new Time’s Up movement, which aims to help protect women from sexual harassment.
She continued her speech by shifting focus to “the good guys” she has worked with, such as Al Pacino, Christopher Nolan and Tate Taylor, and added: “I am the actor I am because of your grace and guidance.”
Jessica received one of 11 prizes given out at the California ceremony. Gary Oldman accepted the Desert Palm Achievement Award, Actor for Darkest Hour, and Saoirse Ronan won the female equivalent for Lady Bird, while the Rising Star Awards went to Gal Gadot for Wonder Woman and Timothee Chalamet for Call Me By Your Name.
During his speech, 22-year-old Timothee jokingly thanked his co-star Armie Hammer’s wife Elizabeth Chambers for “letting me crawl all over your husband for two months” while they filmed the gay romance drama.
The Spotlight Awards were presented to Allison Janney for I, Tonya and Sam Rockwell for Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri, while Mudbound’s Mary J. Blige received the Breakthrough Performance Award. Other recipients included Willem Dafoe (Icon Award), Holly Hunter (Career Achievement Award) and Guillermo del Toro and the cast of The Shape of Water, who took home the Vanguard Award.
