Women should chase male roles: Helen Mirren

Actress Helen Mirren says actresses should go after roles written for men.

In her new film thriller "Eye in the Sky", she plays an army colonel, a role originally written for a man, reported BB online.

The 70-year-old actress said it made her "cross" that many roles were given to men regardless of whether it was the lead character.

"You look at a scene and it's going to be all men around a table and you think at least half of those could have been women," she said.

"It's so hard to get a job as an actress, let alone as a star but just a job - to be a working actress it's so much more difficult than it is for men".

Mirren said the lack of roles for women was also markedly noticeable in the film industry when it comes to extras.

"The only time that there is more women on the set as extras is a swimming pool scene and they're all in bikinis - any swimming pool scene and suddenly it's full of women."