March 28, 2022
Jessica Chastain's Red Carpet Interview Turns to 'Don't Say Gay'
Kilian Melloy READ TIME: 2 MIN.
In a pre-Oscars red carpet interview, "The Eyes of Tammy Faye" star Jessica Chastain addressed Disney's delayed response to Florida's "Don't Say Gay" bill and the way the company's employees reacted, Variety reported.
Speaking with the entertainment outlet's Marc Malkin, Chastain declared that it's "important to take a stand against discriminatory, bigoted legislation," adding that "anything that is discriminatory, that makes one group feel separate from the whole is unloving, and needs to have a very quick and swift stance against."
Disney's reluctance to speak out under the leadership of CEO Bob Chapek drew condemnation when it came to light that the company had made political donations to all of the Florida state lawmakers who sponsored the legislation.
One such "stand against discriminatory, bigoted legislation" took the form of a letter from employees at Disney affiliate Pixar, decrying how depictions of LGBTQ+ affection were ordered to be removed from films at the behest of studio executives. The letter bemoaned how "beautiful stories, full of diverse characters" had been chipped and whittled "down to crumbs" by such directives.
"It was a very emotional, beautiful letter to read," Chastain said. "And I think, the more people that speak up when something isn't being approached in an appropriate way, then we're gonna have more appropriate responses to bigoted legislation."
Later in the evening, Chastain took the Oscar for Best Actress for her role as Tammy Faye Bakker, who is remembered for the compassion she showed to gay men at the height of the AIDS crisis, going so far as to interview Steve Pieters, a gay, HIV+ pastor, on the PTL network in 1985.
Chastain made headlines recently when she brought Pieters with her to an Oscars-related event.
A number of other celebrities, including actors associated with the Disney brand, have spoken out against the legislation, which would criminalize classroom discussion of LGBTQ+ issues in classrooms up through third grade, as well as outlawing any such discussion deemed "not age-appropriate or developmentally appropriate for students in accordance with state standards" in any grade.
The broad wording of the bill, as well as its encouragement of lawsuits against teachers and schools, has prompted equality advocates to worry that LGBTQ+ youth will be systematically silenced and marginalized throughout the state's education system.
Kilian Melloy serves as EDGE Media Network's Associate Arts Editor and Staff Contributor. His professional memberships include the National Lesbian & Gay Journalists Association, the Boston Online Film Critics Association, The Gay and Lesbian Entertainment Critics Association, and the Boston Theater Critics Association's Elliot Norton Awards Committee.
