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Jessica Chastain recalls the day she found the strength to fight back

Cape Town – Jessica Chastain opened up in a new interview about the defining moment she realised she has the strength to fight back.

Speaking to Wall Street Journal magazine the Molly’s Game actress revealed she was raised by a single mom in a financially unstable environment.

“We moved quite a bit, we were evicted, and there were times when we were living with my mom's friends.”

The Golden Globe winner added that when her mom would bring a man into the household, “it would usually lead to some sense of financial upheaval.” 

But there was one defining moment with her mother’s then-boyfriend that showed Jessica she is strong enough to fight back.

“My room was messy or whatever and he had taken my clothes, and I was telling him to give me back my stuff—and he slapped me,” Jessica told the magazine.

“And I just kicked him in the genitals, and he fell to the ground immediately. It was me, my sister and my brother—and I remember looking at my sister's face, and we were both like, 'Oh, my God, what did I just do?' And then I ran out of the house.”

Looking back on that moment now, Jessica admits that following the incident she realised, “OK, if anything happens to me, I'm capable of fighting back.”

The 40-year-old added that the one lesson she learned that day was not to let bullies intimidate her.

“If you allow a bully to intimidate or victimise you, they'll continue to do it. Bullies are actually weak; they don't go after strong people.”

The lesson has quite obviously stuck as Jessica has long fought for equal pay and has contributed largely to the Time’s Up initiative.

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