Elizabeth Banks has been told she "can't direct men" because they wouldn't "follow" her on set.
The 52-year-old actress and filmmaker has opened up about the misogyny she has faced in Hollywood, despite working with the likes of Ray Liotta in 2023's Cocaine Bear.
Appearing on The Kelly Clarkson Show, she said: “I was literally told because I direct films that, ‘You can’t direct men. They won’t follow you'.
"And then I directed Ray Liotta, who played Henry Hill in Goodfellas, and I think I nailed it. Check the list off. It’s all good.”
Elizabeth - who has also directed the likes of Charlie's Angels and Pitch Perfect 2 - insisted that despite being part of a "great club" of women behind the camera, the film industry needs "more representation".
She added: “Despite me knowing that I’m in a great club, it’s a really small club, and it needs more representation.
"We need more storytellers from different perspectives, angles. And we need more audiences to watch...
"I’m having a lot of fun making sure that women have a real sense of agency in whatever they’re doing, whatever stories I’m telling.”
Elizabeth is currently starring in new Apple TV+ series The Miniature Wife, in which she stars as a writer made to feel small by her scientist husband.
However, things take a turn when her man - played by Matthew Macfadyen) accidentally shrinks her to six inches small.
She said: "It’s a very funny show, but what I really was drawn to was, we get to sort of talk about a big feeling, which is feeling diminished by a partner.
“Or in your professional life, in your romantic life, I think we all have that relatable experience of being made to feel small every once in a while.
"And in this case, it’s literal and physical, and we get to sort of look at that from an absurdist lens, but talk about some big issues that I think people understand.”
She is also set to star in a new comedy from Apple TV+ from writers Liz Heldens and Matt Ward.
The logline for the as yet untitled show reads: "Fresh off a messy divorce, Heidi (Banks) sets out to secure a lively second act for herself and her kids.
"But when she stumbles into coordinating her father’s retirement community sex dates, Heidi is forced into an unlikely alliance with his girlfriend’s perpetually single son.”
