Jessica Chastain Calls out CBS for Lack of Female Leads

Golden Globe-winning actress Jessica Chastain has taken to social media to call out CBS for its lack of TV shows featuring female leads.

Chastain tweeted out a story by The Wrap titled “CBS Execs on Not Picking Any Fall Shows With Female Leads: ‘We Are Cognizant of the Issue.’” She then added, “I’ll just [Netflix] and chill.”

Continuing her comment, Chastain wrote, “Or some [HBO] greatness. Or anything by [Ryan Murphy]. There’sso many incredible options that dont (sic) include [CBS].”

Thom Sherman, CBS’ senior executive vice president of programming attempted to defend the network after it failed to pick up any series with women in lead roles.

He said, “The way things turned out, those pilots were not felt to be as good as some of the other series that were picked up. That’s just the cycle of business and how it happens sometimes.”

This isn’t the first time Chastain has spoken out about the lack of gender equality in film and TV.

In a previous interview, she said, “I’m not taking jobs anymore where I’m getting paid a quarter of what the male costar is being paid. I’m not allowing that in my life.”

The Zero Dark Thirty star continued, “What I do now, when I’m taking on a film, I always ask about the fairness of the pay. I ask what they’re offering me in comparison to the guy.”

She added, “I don’t care about how much I get paid; I’m in an industry where we’re overcompensated for the work we do.”

Lastly, Chastain ended her comment by saying, “I don’t want to be on a set where I’m doing the same work as someone else and they’re getting five times what I’m getting.”