Jessica Chastain says awards season is "a much happier" time without Harvey Weinstein.

The 44-year-old Hollywood star believes the disgraced movie mogul — who is currently serving 23 years in jail for sex crimes — was an "instigator" in sparking negativity when a movie was doing well.

Opting not to name Weinstein, she said: "Listen, he-who-shall-not-be-named really changed awards season.

"I don't see it nowadays like I saw it when I first came onto the scene. If a film had a lot of attention, there'd be all these negative articles about it, all of a sudden. I believe he-who-shall-not-be-named is the instigator of that kind of campaigning."

Jessica added to Variety's Awards Circuit podcast: "Thank goodness our industry is moving to a more healthy environment, and we're now more celebratory of everyone. We're not trying to knock someone down because they're competition. We have now moved to a much happier place."

According to a previous report by The Hollywood Reporter, Weinstein is rumoured to have tried to turn the attention away from Jessica and her 2012 movie Zero Dark Thirty after director Kathryn Bigelow allegedly rejected his offer to produce the flick.

The motion picture ended up receiving five Oscar nominations, including Best Actress for Jessica, Best Director for Kathryn and Best Picture, however, it only picked up Best Sound Editing.

In July 2021, Weinstein pleaded not guilty to sex crime charges in Los Angeles.

The producer is in prison in New York for third-degree rape and first degree criminal sex act, and he appeared in court in Los Angeles for a hearing regarding a further 11 charges, including four counts of rape.

Weinstein — who is wheelchair-bound — entered a plea of not guilty to all 11 counts, while his lawyers also filed a motion to dismiss three of the counts, stating that the statute of limitations had expired.

The indictment included counts of rape, forcible oral copulation, sexual battery by restraint and sexual penetration by use of force.

The trial was delayed from the usual timeframe to 2022.

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