Hollywood star Jessica Chastain talks strikes, jury duty at Marrakech International Film Festival

Gulf News

The 20th edition of the Marrakech Film Festival was relatively subdued, but Oscar winning Jessica Chastain was on a roll  Read the full story here:   See more videos at https://gulfnews.com/videos Read more Gulf News stories here: https://bit.ly/2HLJ2km

Transcript

00:00Good evening, this is Manjusha Radhakrishnan from Gulf News. I'm the entertainment editor.

00:04I'm on the red carpet of the Marrakesh, the 20th Marrakesh International Film Festival

00:10and we are expecting a galaxy of Hollywood stars such as Jessica Chastain,

00:14there's Alexander Skarsgård who are all part of the jury that's going to select the best film.

00:19Interestingly, Marrakesh is one of the few festivals where it gives the award,

00:24the Best Movie Award, to the first and the second film directors who make the second or the first film.

00:32So it's quite interesting and different that way.

00:34And it's also one of the few festivals which is accessible to the public,

00:38all the master classes are open to the public and it's got a bit of glitz and glamour as well.

00:43This year it's been slightly muted and I tell you why because there was an earthquake in September

00:50and the city is just sprinting back to normalcy and it's done very well

00:55and also because of the geopolitics that's around us.

00:57So therefore it's been very muted but we're expecting a lot of red carpet action as well.

01:02Very soon you're going to see Jessica Chastain speak about the Hollywood strikes,

01:06speak about her role as the president of the jury this year and lots more. Stay tuned.

01:12I'm glad that our leadership, the SAG leadership, has gotten to a deal that they think is fair and

01:18historic in its own right. We still are waiting to find out what the voters are going to choose,

01:24if they're going to ratify the contract. I've looked through it. I do think personally it

01:28is a good deal but of course I only have one vote and it's important to me what everyone

01:32else thinks as well and that's the beautiful thing about taking a vote is that everyone gets to have

01:37a say. I didn't choose to be so public about it. I think it just so happened because my film had an

01:47interim agreement because so many actors were nervous I think to speak out. I just ended up

01:57being one of the first and I think when you end up being one of the first in that case you really

02:01have a big spotlight on yourself. I did my homework. I spoke to the leadership at SAG

02:06and I asked them how can I best support this acting community because SAG is the most important

02:13community I've ever been a part of and I would never want to do anything against them

02:18and I only wanted to support them. So it was kind of like I became public by default.

02:23Like you wanted to have more women than men in your jury?

02:28Melita!

02:30Is it true and why were you saying that?

02:31Here's the thing. At one point we were talking about the jury and she said well,

02:36I didn't say it has to be more women than men but at one point she says well but then it'll be

02:42six and three and then I said well what's wrong with that and many times there's been six men and

02:48three women so what's the big I mean sometimes too there's been all men so what's the big deal

02:54of having six and three? I think it's kind of an incredible thing to do and it's I mean it

02:58really is historic that this is the jury that we have this year. I like to be part of anything that

03:06pushes the boundaries of what we thought was supposed to be or what the norm was. I like

03:12to kind of live in the future and I do see the future as a more equal community in terms of

03:19racial equality and gender equality and so forth so I'm very very happy. It wasn't a demand on my

03:25part but I was very happy to be the president of a jury that has six women in it.

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