Jessica Chastain left close to tears as she shares rare childhood details

Jessica, who has chosen to keep much of her life private, opened up on the challenges she faced as a young girl, and how the experiences of her mother Jerri, grandmother Marilyn and great-grandmother had impacted her own decisions.

All three of the women in Jessica's life, and her aunt, became mothers before they were 17, dropping out of school and giving up career aspirations, and she explained how she was "the first in my family to not get pregnant as a teenager, the first to finish high school, and the first to attend college".

"And attending The Juilliard School didn’t just change my life, it showed my family that a different path was possible," she shared, revealing that "theater became my lifeline" and a way to "break free from the expectations that had bound my family for generations".

Jessica, who won her first Oscar for The Eyes of Tammy Faye, and has also appeared in The Help, Interstellar, and Zero Dark Thirty, continued: "I’ve worked to dismantle the restrictive roles that society imposes on women. Too often, women are valued only for their sexual desirability or their function as mothers, reducing them to bodies in service of everyone but themselves."

"As I stand here tonight, I am mindful of the state of the world, our country, our politics and the misogyny that persists. So many women are still taught to find their worth in roles defined by men," she concluded, choking up as she thanked her mother and grandmother, who were both in attendance, and "to everyone in this room, I urge you to consider the authority of the stories that we choose to tell. Filmmaking is a political act. We’re shaping not only our world but also the world for future generations."

Jerri and Marilyn were joined by Jessica's husband,  Gian Luca Passi de Preposulo, whom she married in 2017.

The pair met in January 2012 after they both attended the Giorgio Armani Privé haute-couture spring/summer 2012 fashion show – and it was the same day she was nominated for her first Oscar.

"The day that Gian Luca and I met was the day that I got nominated for an Oscar," she once told Kelly Ripa and Ryan Seacrest on Live. "It’s like, probably the best day I ever had."

They have welcomed two children, a daughter in 2018 named Giulietta, and a son named Augustus.

The event was jam-packed with stars, as Bryan Cranston, Aaron Sorkin, Octavia Spencer, Guillermo del Toro, Sebastian Stan, Casey Affleck, Michael Showalter and Niki Caro all appeared in person to speak of their love for Jessica.

Al Pacino, Jeremy Strong, Oscar Isaac, Peter Dinklage, Matthew McConaughey and Ralph Fiennes sent in video messages.

Oscar — who attended Juilliard at the same time as Jessica —filmed his message in the halls of the school.

"For 23 years you’ve been an inspiration to me, as an artist, as an actor, as a friend, as a redhead. I love you, my sister from another mister," he said.

Guillermo, who directed Jessica in Crimson Peak in 2015, shared how she visited him when he was admitted to hospital and forced to miss their premiere, adding that she came in character as Lucille "with a cup of poison tea, and she sat by my side and sang me the song that the character sings, and I laughed and I felt in the first time in a very scary period of 48 hours, that things were going to be OK."