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Olivia Wilde: Sexism is 'institutional'

Olivia Wilde on 'The Edit'
Olivia Wilde on 'The Edit'

Olivia Wilde thinks sexism is ''institutional'' and people always like to attach labels to actresses.

The 31-year-old actress believes sexism is ''not conscious'' and people don't set out to be offensive, but she finds it frustrating that she and her fellow screen stars always seem to be assigned a label of identity.

She told Net-a-Porter's The Edit: ''Sexism is institutional. It's not conscious. People don't realise what they're saying, because you hear it from both men and women. ''People are now saying, 'Listen, you need to hire women, specifically because they are women,' and although that's uncomfortable, it's how things change.

''When I was younger, it felt like the main point was that [I was] one of the attractive actresses, and I felt totally minimized by it, as everyone does. ''But it's worn off, in a good way; I'm happy to have grown out of the place where that is the main point made about me.''

''Juno [Temple] has always been a total individual; she's never tried to look or behave like anyone else... Jennifer Lawrence is a great example of brainy, feisty beauty.

''The media always chooses one element of you to assign as your identity plaque: 'She's the mom, she's political, she's the one who is really pretty.' But we are all of those things.'' And Olivia - who has son Otis, 22 months, with fiance Jason Sudeikis - admitted she was left frustrated when her movie 'Meadowland' struggled to obtain funding until it had a male star attached to make it ''real''.

She said: ''Many people said, 'Come to us when the project is real.' I answered: 'The project is real: we have a director, we have an actor, we have a script, it's real.' And they said, 'No - when you get the guy attached.' Like we were just girls with a little project.

''There's this sense that a project is incomplete if there's no male participation.'' To read The EDIT on iPhone, iPad and Android, download the new free app, The EDIT by NET-A-PORTER, from the App Store and Google Play.

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