"No One Wanted To Be My Friend": Jessica Chastain Tells Glamour

Actress Jessica Chastain may be called gorgeous today, but during her school days she was labelled "ugly". The "Zero Dark Thirty" star opened up about bullying during her childhood in a candid interview with Glamour magazine in their November issue.

"I was told every day at school that I was ugly. And that no one wanted to be my friend. The most cruel things," she said in an interview with the magazine. "If I can do anything to help young girls and to be a cheerleader for people who sometimes have low self-esteem, I want to do that," the 37-year-old added.

Jessica has 3 big releases this Fall, ‘Interstellar,' ‘The Disappearance of Eleanor Rigby: Them,' and ‘A Most Violent Year.' Talking about lead roles, Jessica said Glamour, "When I play a female lead, like the role in Zero Dark Thirty, even if she's strong, I try to give her as many flaws as I can. I think to play a female hero without faults is actually doing a disservice to women. I think it's more interesting to see women on-screen with flaws. Then it's not this unreasonable expectation that society then would put on you: ‘Well, a strong women can't be like this....'"

While talking about her favourite stars in Hollywood, Jessica Chastain said, "I'm really, really supportive of women in Hollywood. I love Meryl Streep. She's such an incredible actress. But I feel like she's the only one in her age group who gets those parts. I'd like to see Jessica Lange in a movie again, you know? Or Susan Sarandon. Why isn't Viola Davis a lead in a film? She's one of the greatest actresses alive. And where are the Asian actors and actresses? I'm not saying, ‘We don't want movies about men.' I'm just saying, ‘Come on, all the men I know love women. So let's also have some stories about these women. Let's write something for them, guys-and let's make room for women writers too.'"

Explaining why she doesn't talk about her personal life, Jessica said, "I think it's important not to talk about it. In the future I will. If everything continues on a path, of course it'll be part of the conversation. But until it gets there, I don't want to put any unexpected pressure on something that is so personal and so precious. It's too delicate right now."