Jessica Chastain

Jessica Chastain is an Academy Award winning American actress and producer. She made her film debut in the drama Jolene in 2008. In 2011, she had a prolific year in film. She was nominated for and won a number of awards, including a 2012 Oscar nomination for Best Performance by an Actress in a Supporting Role for The Help (2011).

She garnered critical acclaim in 2012 for her performance in Zero Dark Thirty, winning the Critics Choice Movie Award for Best Actress and the Golden Globe Award for Best Actress – Motion Picture Drama and receiving nominations for the Academy Award for Best Actress, the BAFTA Award for Best Actress in a Leading Role and the Screen Actors Guild Award for Outstanding Performance by a Female Actor in a Leading Role. Other notable films include Christopher Nolan’s Interstellar, A Most Violent Year, for which she received her third Golden Globe and Critics’ Choice nominations, and Ridley Scott’s The Martian (2015). In 2019 she starred in X-Men: Dark Phoenix as part of an ensemble cast.

In 2022, Chastain won the Best Actress award at the Oscars for her portrayal of Tammy Faye Bakker in The Eyes of Tammy Faye (2021) and in 2022, she starred opposite Eddie Redmayne in The Good Nurse.

Why Jessica Chastain is vegan

Jessica Chastain is vegan for health.

Jessica initially adopted a plant-based diet to improve her health in 2005. In her twenties, she wanted to find a way to improve her cholesterol without medication so she turned to a vegan diet. After trying it for two weeks she had more energy than she’d ever had in her life so by listening to her body, she decided a vegan diet was best for her.¹Adorante, M. 2017. Jessica Chastain Speaks Out About Female Stereotypes in Hollywood, and Why All Women Are “Strong Women”. wmagazine. Available: https://www.wmagazine.com/story/jessica-chastain-women-hollywood [Accessed 4 March 2021].

She has since become an investor in Beyond Meat²McLaughlin, S. 2019. X-MEN’S JESSICA CHASTAIN AND SOPHIE TURNER CHAT ABOUT VEGANISM DURING DINNER DATE. VegNews. Available: https://vegnews.com/2019/6/x-mens-jessica-chastain-and-sophie-turner-chat-about-veganism-during-dinner-date [Accessed 4 March 2021]., stating environmental reasons as her motivation. She has also supported the ‘Adopt don’t Shop’ initiative, showing that, although health was the primary motivator, concerns for the environment and the animals also fuel her veganism.

Jessica is luckier than many as her mother, Jerry Hastey, is a vegan chef. In 2014, Jessica even bought her mum a vegan food truck as a birthday present.³Holland, C. 2014. JESSICA CHASTAIN BUYS MOM VEGAN FOOD TRUCK. VegNews. Available: https://vegnews.com/2014/12/jessica-chastain-buys-mom-vegan-food-truck [Accessed 4 March 2021].

“I have always been a huge animal lover and supporter. I’ve adopted every animal I’ve ever had… I’m vegan and I believe in buying cruelty free products.”⁴Entertainment Weekly. 2017. Jessica Chastain: ‘I’ve Adopted Every Animal I’ve Ever Had’ | PeopleTV | Entertainment Weekly. YouTube. Video available: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DEdmLGTBxmE [Accessed 4 March 2021].