London: Veteran actress Dame Helen Mirren believes men dominate the entertainment industry.
‘The Queen’ star said there is a need to balance between the number of male and female roles in films, while speaking at the Women in Film and Television Awards.
"I`m looking forward to the time that at least there`s a balance. Women represent half of the population and I want to see as many female roles as there are male roles, because at the moment the balance is very unfair," the Telegraph quoted her as saying.
She added: "When I started as a young actress, you walked on to the set and it was all men.
“If you were lucky there was one woman who was perhaps the make-up person or the girl who helped you get into your costume.
“Everybody was male. My God, it`s changed, but it hasn`t gone nearly far enough.
"It`s incredible to see now the number of women in producing and writing, and I`ve worked with wonderful female assistant directors, but I want to see more women behind the camera because in my experience there are not enough female cinematographers and that`s an area we have to keep working on."
The 64-year-old actress was honored with the award for lifetime achievement at the event.
She said: "Really, the only reason I`ve earned this is by being old. I was just in the loo and it was absolutely jam-packed with women. And do you know what they were doing? They were networking. Because we can`t do it on the golf course, can we?"
Mirren further elaborated on the payment women receive for their job.
She said: "I just think women should get better at negotiating their pay. That`s the most important thing.
"Because women would rather sit on the lavatory in public than ask for more money and that`s why I think they mostly get left behind, because they`re just not bossy enough. But I`m not a good role model because I`m a tough old bird.
"I sort of thought we marched all those years ago so women wouldn`t feel like victims - and actually quite a lot of young women still do."
ANI
