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Dame Emma Thompson is known for speaking her mind, both eloquently and reasonably, and she's shared some typically perceptive observations on the way sexism manifests in Hollywood movies.

Thompson made her comments while discussing her upcoming movie, Good Luck To You, Leo Grande, in which she plays a widowed 55-year-old woman who hires a younger man for a night of sexual fulfillment.

Speaking on the CultureBlast podcast, she said: “It’s very interesting with this woman I’m about to play. This young man says, ‘You’re perfectly attractive, why can’t you find another chap?’ And she says, ‘Because the only people willing to sleep with me are people my age, and I want to sleep with someone younger than me.’"

“Now I’ve never heard a woman say that on screen," Thompson continued. "With men, it’s completely acceptable. It’s completely acceptable for George Clooney — who is delightful — to have someone who is 30 years younger than him. If I have someone playing opposite me in a romantic way, they have to exhume someone, because I’m 61 now. Do you see what I mean? It’s completely and utterly unbalanced."

Thompson went on to say that she hopes the movie, which is due to be filmed in London next year, will change people's expectations of older women on screen.

“If Leo Grande, the film that we make, speaks to people and people aren’t averse to seeing someone who’s 61 largely naked with a very much younger person, it’s going to be very interesting. We’ve got to keep being brave about that," she added.

Do you agree with Dame Emma Thompson's comments about sexist double standards in intimate scenes?