Felicity Jones has said it is the challenge of her generation to contest the idea that women who have an opinion are frightening.
The Rogue One star, who will next be seen playing Supreme Court justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg in the biopic On The Basis Of Sex, said there is still a fear of women and changing the status quo.
She told Marie Claire: “I think we get driven into boxes, like the idea that if you are an ‘ambitious woman’ you have to be mean in order to be heard.
“I don’t like that attitude. That, I think, is the challenge of our generation – to challenge this idea that to be heard and to have an opinion, you are somehow frightening.
“It is basically this fear of women, isn’t it? And this fear of change.”
The Oscar nominee, 35, who married director Charles Guard last year, added: “I believe that to be a feminist doesn’t mean you have to do it all on your own – the partnership, the sharing, that makes it so much easier.
“But you have to be on the same side. You have to be with a man who is also a feminist.”
Jones also spoke about how her upbringing in Birmingham has shaped who she is, saying: “You cannot take yourself too seriously if you’re from Birmingham. No one will let you.
“It definitely has been formative and I think it spoilt me, in the sense that it is an incredibly diverse city.”
“If I hadn’t grown up in Birmingham, I don’t think I’d be who I am today.”
The full interview is in the February issue of Marie Claire, out now.