Actress Leslie Mann wants more female led comedies

Dakota Johnson and Rebel Wilson in a scene from the movie How To Be Single.

Actress Leslie Mann has called for more strong, funny females in comedy films.

Speaking at the premiere of her latest romantic comedy film, How To Be Single, she said comedies did not have a fair chance of winning awards.

"I love watching women in strong comedies and I think it's ridiculous that we don't have any comedy categories - and the one category we do get always goes to a drama," she said.

The film, based on Liz Tuccillo's novel of the same name, is led by four female characters who are learning how to be single in a world where the definition of love is always changing.

The film stars Australian actress Rebel Wilson, 35, as a fun-loving singleton called Robin, who teaches her newly single colleague Alice, played by Dakota Johnson, how to be single. Mann, 43, stars alongside them as Alice's older sister, Meg, who's worried she'll lose her independence if she falls in love.

Wilson, 35, said she agreed with Mann when it comes to awards season.

She said: "I find it interesting when I'm watching the Globes and there's a comedy category. I think not all films nominated fit into that category. But I love working in comedy, I have so much fun working in it.

"I particularly love that I'm being chosen to star in strong, female ensemble movies. First I did Bridesmaids and then the Pitch Perfect franchise and now this.

"I love the girl power," she added.

Fifty Shades Of Grey star Dakota Johnson, 26, said the fun never stopped when she was working with Wilson.

"Rebel was amazing to work with, she's smart and funny and her brain never stops working," she said.

"It's not easy being funny, it's something people have in their bones it can't be taught."

Also starring in the movie is new-comer Alison Brie, 33, who spoke about the shift in society and what is expected of women.

Brie said: "We're shedding the stigma that we need men for power and money and the idea that we were only meant to be a wife.

"It's very old-fashioned thinking, but now that women can have children later and women are focusing on their careers longer, you can really be single and it isn't a negative thing."

How To Be Single is released in New Zealand cinemas on February 18.

- PAA