Dame Helen Mirren feels men dominate entertainment industry

December 5th, 2009 - 1:38 pm ICT (UTC +0700) by ANI

London, December 05 (ANI): 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)