--- description: Jessica Chastain spoke out about the film industry creating oversexualized female characters in order to draw audiences. title: Jessica Chastain: Films Oversexualize Female Action Stars image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltebfe0cb406303727/698866165f570f48bcb1da08/jessica-chastain.jpg?branch=production&width=3840&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  * [Newsfeed](/tag/time-section-newsfeed/) ## Newsfeed Update your preferences in [Account Settings](/account/preferences/) Close # Jessica Chastain Called Out Hollywood for Oversexualizing Female Action Stars  by [Megan McCluskey](/author/megan-mccluskey/)  ## Megan McCluskey Update your preferences in [Account Settings](/account/preferences/) Close Staff Writer Sep 29, 2015 9:00 PM CUT  Jessica Chastain arrives for the UK premiere of "The Martian" at Leicester Square in London on Sept. 24, 2015. Jessica Chastain arrives for the UK premiere of "The Martian" at Leicester Square in London on Sept. 24, 2015.Stefan Wermuth—Reuters  by [Megan McCluskey](/author/megan-mccluskey/)  ## Megan McCluskey Update your preferences in [Account Settings](/account/preferences/) Close Staff Writer Sep 29, 2015 9:00 PM CUT Jessica Chastain spoke out about the film industry creating oversexualized female characters in order to draw audiences to theaters. During an [interview](http://www.radiotimes.com/news/2015-09-28/jessica-chastain-movie-studios-over-sexualise-kickass-women? "undefined") with Radio Times to promote her upcoming role in Ridley Scott’s _The Martian_, the actress explained that Hollywood has a penchant for poorly portraying its leading lady action stars. “If you look at films like _Elektra_ and _Aeon Flux_, the problem that studios have is they try to make kick-ass women very sexualized,” Chastain said. “They have to be in some catsuit.” She also commented on the characteristics that her ideal female action hero embodies. “But if you look at the most incredible female roles, like Ripley in _Alien_, she is a very sexy woman but she’s not wearing a lot of makeup,” the actress remarked. “She’s in a T-shirt and jeans. What’s sexy about her is how capable she is. Same with Jennifer Lawrence in _Hunger Games_ – she’s not wearing a catsuit, either. Studios have misjudged it in the past and thought audiences weren’t interested in seeing a woman in an action role who’s a capable, intelligent woman and isn’t only leaning on her sex.” In _The Martian_, Chastain plays Commander Lewis, the astronaut captain of a crew on Mars. She stressed that she only cares about movies in which actresses portray roles that are as intriguing as their male counterparts’. “If the female character isn’t as interesting as the male character, I’m not interested,” she said. ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/4054774/jessica-chastain-hollywood-oversexualizes-female-action-stars/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/4054774/jessica-chastain-hollywood-oversexualizes-female-action-stars/"},"headline":"Jessica Chastain Called Out Hollywood for Oversexualizing Female Action Stars","datePublished":"2015-09-29T21:00:04.000Z","dateModified":"2026-04-13T07:25:23.492Z","description":"\"What’s sexy about her is how capable she is\"","url":"https://time.com/4054774/jessica-chastain-hollywood-oversexualizes-female-action-stars/","keywords":["Newsfeed","Hollywood","film","Jessica Chastain"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltebfe0cb406303727/698866165f570f48bcb1da08/jessica-chastain.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Megan McCluskey","jobTitle":"Staff Writer","url":"https://time.com/author/megan-mccluskey/"}],"articleSection":"","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltebfe0cb406303727/698866165f570f48bcb1da08/jessica-chastain.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"Actress Chastain arrives for the UK premiere of \"The Martian\" at Leicester Square in London","caption":"Actress Chastain arrives for the UK premiere of \"The Martian\" at Leicester Square in London","creditText":"Stefan Wermuth—Reuters","representativeOfPage":true}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/tag/time-section-newsfeed/","name":"Newsfeed"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/4054774/jessica-chastain-hollywood-oversexualizes-female-action-stars/","name":"Jessica Chastain Called Out Hollywood for Oversexualizing Female Action Stars"}}]}] ```