Bill Nighy, who stars as Mr Woodhouse in the latest big screen outing of Jane Austin's Emma, was thrilled to work with director Autumn de Wilde but says there needs to be more female filmmakers taking centre stage in Hollywood.
Speaking to RTÉ Entertainment ahead of the film's release on February 14, the veteran actor explained that while he thinks things are beginning to change in terms of equality in the movie industry, he feels there is still a long way to go.
He said: "Emma was written by a women and directed by a woman. There needs to be more female directors and hopefully there will be more and more. There needs to be.
Watch our interview with Bill Nighy
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"It is ludicrous that a person genitalia should recommend a person for a particular job. It is bizarre, it’s a sort of medieval thing and it is about time it changed."
In fact, one of the main reasons he was drawn to the movie, as he usually doesn't do period features, is the fact that de Wilde was at the helm.
"I haven't done a lot of period things... But Autumn de Wilde is very special, very different, I had never met anyone quite like her. She is funny, she is obviously smart as anything."
Emma is released in cinemas nationwide on February 14.
