Dame Emma Thompson says she is “not sure how great” the sexual revolution of the 1970s and 80s was and that it may have encouraged “predatory” behaviour.
The actress. 63, said she felt that modern feminism was about women “finding our space” rather than being “more like men”.
It comes ahead of the release of her new film Good Luck To You, Leo Grande co-starring Daryl McCormack, in which she plays a retired teacher who hires a 28-year-old male sex worker after the death of her husband.
She told The Times: “I’m not sure how great the sexual revolution was.
“I’m not sure whether it benefited us in the ways that are loudly bruited these days.
“It made us more available, I suppose, for sex, because we weren’t going to get pregnant, but I don’t know.
“It also introduced something else, which felt to me and feels to me now when I look back on it a little bit predatory and certainly which led, I think directly, to the sort of ladette Nineties, where women were supposed to be just like men.”
Dame Emma added: “Now for me, feminism is not about women becoming more like men.
“It’s not about that.
“It’s about finding our space, enlarging our space, and the ways in which we work in the world in order to balance things out.”
Good Luck To You, Leo Grande is due to be released in UK cinemas on June 17.