Despite more overall awareness of Hollywood’s gender inequality issues, women have made no progress in recent years, and have actually lost ground, according to Oscar-winning actress Emma Thompson.
The Sense and Sensibility writer and star, a London native, told the U.K.’s Radio Times Monday the entertainment industry is even more discriminatory today than when she launched her film career in the 1980s.
“I think it’s still completely s*** actually,” Thompson told the publication’s July 21 edition. “I don’t think there’s any appreciable improvement and I think that for women, the question of how they are supposed to look is worse than it was even when I was young.”
She also added: “When I was younger, I really did think we were on our way to a better world and when I look at it now, it is in a worse state than I have known it, particularly for women and I find that very disturbing and sad.”
Thompson is slated to star as a 77-year-old prostitute in the upcoming film The Legend of Barney Thompson, and although she complained about the ageism of the casting choice, saying, “It would be really nice to get someone who is actually 77 to play her,” she said she couldn’t pass on the role.
The 56-year-old global warming alarmist also said conversations with younger female colleagues have helped her better grasp the issues women are facing.
“I get behind as many young female performers as I can and actually a lot of the conversations I have with them are about exactly the fact that we are facing and writing about the same things and nothing has changed,” she said.
Thompson won the Academy Award for Best Actress in 1992 for her role in the romantic drama Howards End. In 1995, she was nominated for the same award for her role in Sense and Sensibility, but won an Oscar for writing the film’s screen adaptation.
The Legend of Barney Thomson will make its U.S. debut Friday, July 24.