Jessica Chastain spent Saturday at Madison Square Garden in New York City where she hosted Baby2Baby’s Back2School celebration.
The nonprofit organization is dedicated to helping children in need and providing basic necessities to more than one million children in the United States each year.
The 46-year-old Molly’s Game star playfully dunked hoops on the court at the famous arena during the event.
She looked fresh and spring-like in a lavender jumpsuit and high-top white sneakers.
The Interstellar actress, who won the Golden Icon Award for her role in Memento at the Zurich Film Festival, wore her fiery red hair parted down the middle as she rolled up her sleeves and handed out backpacks to children attending the event.
Earlier this week, the mum-of-two found herself in hot water after her comments about the conflict between Israel and Hamas were taken out of context.
“I am a woman who fears for the women in this world,” the Oscar-winning actress tweeted. “Sexual violence against women should never be justified. This is an inhumane act.”
After a Twitter user told Chastain, “Also fear for Palestinian women and young girls…”, she said, “I fear for ALL women.”
Another Twitter user asked the “Help” star, “Why are you only bringing this up now?”, to which she responded with a list of her humanitarian work.
“I supported women all over the world,” the California native said. “I marched with them in Poland. I spoke about their difficulties on television and on social media.”
Even more people continued to drag her down and mentioned how she trained with an IDF soldier for her 2010 film The Debt and suggested it validated her political views.
“This video is about preparation for a film I made over 10 years ago,” she said. “I played a woman hunting a Nazi war criminal in the 1960s. It had nothing to do with Palestine.”
“I studied the martial arts of Krav Maga with an Israeli in Los Angeles for a film where I fought a Nazi, not a Palestinian,” she said. “Then I did a move from the movie when Graham attacked me with a banana during the late night show.”
She continued, “Context is not what anyone really cares about on this app, so I’ve never worried about it until now, but I am concerned about the cruel narrative created for ‘likes,’ so I’m clarifying the situation.”
Also earlier this week, Jessica won an award for her role in the upcoming film Memento at the Zurich Film Festival.
The Good Nurse star received the Golden Icon Award at the annual film festival in Switzerland, where the film also premiered.
She plays Sylvia in Memento, “a social worker and recovering alcoholic struggling with childhood trauma who lives a simple and structured life.” It opens when Saul follows her home from a high school reunion.
“Their unexpected meeting will deeply affect them both as it opens a door to the past,” according to IMDb.