Jessica Chastain Wants a Sequel to Her Worst Movie

Jessica Chastain has announced that she would like to make a sequel to The Help (2011), the racially-themed 1960s drama about the struggles of Black maids in the 1960s that mostly focused on the issues of their wealthier White employers. Although the film was critically acclaimed upon its release, The Help has become the subject of much debate and backlash in the years since, which makes it a pretty odd choice for Chastain to want to revisit.

Jessica Chastain and Octavia Spencer in The Help — Credit: Disney

In an interview with EW’s The Awardist podcast, Jessica Chastain said that she would leap at the chance to play the ostracized Mississippian socialite Celia Rae Foote, explaining, “You know who I think about all the time, and I just wish I could play her [again]? Celia Foote. I just want to do something, Celia and Minny [Octavia Spencer], and see what happened…You know they ended up living together and raising the baby together, they were best friends. How amazing would that film be? I loved her, and I got to be a bit silly.”

Octavia Spencer won the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress for the Disney-produced The Help, actually beating out X-Men star Jessica Chastain (who clearly does not hold any ill will about it). But while the movie was a critical and commercial success at the time, it has since been accused of promoting a White savior narrative over the actual perspectives of the central Black characters, sidelining almost all Black male characters as either neglectful or abusive, and overall, trivializing the subject matter.

Of the leads of the film, DCU star Viola Davis (who was nominated for Best Actress) has thoroughly disowned the movie, going so far as to say that she felt she had “betrayed myself and my people” and that The Help was “created in the filter and the cesspool of systemic racism.” Similarly, Jurassic World star Bryce Dallas Howard told the LA Times that she would not make the movie if offered it now, and it was important to “make room for the true authentic storytellers.”

However, Jessica Chastain seems to have no reservations about her part in The Help, and if anything, feels there is more to be explored in the story of Celia and Minny, which is to say, a wealthy White woman in the 1960s and the Black woman who she employs and uses for emotional support.

As of press time, Octavia Spencer has not commented on her interest in a potential sequel to The Help.

Would you see a sequel to The Help in theaters? Let us know in the comments below!