Jessica Chastain says no one in her family noticed that she hadn’t graduated from high school.
The 45-year-old actress was raised by her grandmother and very young mother and has revealed that her younger sister’s substance abuse issues – who took her own life when Jessica was in her 20s – took over much of their household’s attention, so Jessica’s school dropout went unnoticed.
She told The Guardian newspaper: “I dropped out of high school. In my family, nobody stopped me, nobody told me: you can’t be an actress. But I’m sure they would have preferred me to fall in love with the profession of dentistry. But my sister had a lot of difficulties, and everyone was very stressed. So the focus was on that. When I didn’t graduate, no one noticed. Yes. There wasn’t even a conversation like, ‘Uh, are we going to your graduation?’ Nothing. »
Jessica – who has two children with her husband Gian Luca Passi de Preposulo – also revealed that she thinks it’s important that women can choose whether they want to have children or not.
She explained: “The problem is that my mother, my grandmother and all the women in my family were pregnant at 17, because they were never given that choice. Birth control is expensive. And they mightn’t rely on men to do their part, to be responsible. It is therefore very important to me that women have access to contraceptives and are free to choose. Because I know a lot of people are scared when women decide not to have children. But I think it’s great! »
