Natalie Portman slams Hollywood inequality and how women are portrayed on film

Natalie Portman has criticised Hollywood's way of portraying strong woman simply as 'tough'. Photo/AP

She's been a keen advocate for women's right and gender equality in Hollywood. And in a surprisingly honest interview Natalie Portman has taken a swipe at "films that try to be feminist", complaining that they don't show women as humans.

Speaking to The Guardian, the Jackie star, 35, said that to make Jackie Kennedy a real women she had to let her feel a range of emotions and be 'human', not just 'tough'.

Sitting down to talk about her latest film, the actress admitted that Hollywood films often failed to portray feminists in the correct light, the Daily Mail reports

"A lot of films that try for a 'feminist' portrayal will just make a woman be really tough," the star explained. "Well, that's not feminist because it's not allowing the woman to be a human being. No one's just tough."

Expanding on the point she added that the view that everything would be better if women ran the world is wrong.

Asked if female leaders were better than men, she said: "No. We're human beings. There are good ones, there are bad ones, and everyone is going to be a mix of everything."

However, it would seem that Portman feels the film industry especially has a long way to come in terms of gender equality.

"Every year it's exclusively male-directed, written and filmed movies that we're talking about in awards season. Not that men shouldn't be making films," she explained, adding: "It's just crazy that there is such a minority of women's voices out there."

This is not the first time she has expressed her views on the way she believes Hollywood favours men above women.

In an interview with Marie Claire UK, the Oscar-winning actress revealed her pay cheque 2011's No Strings Attached was much less than that of co-star Ashton Kutcher's.

However, she said she found it hard to complain because even her more modest salary was still "a lot.

She said: "Ashton Kutcher was paid three times as much as me on No Strings Attached.

"I knew and I went along with it because there's this thing with 'quotes' in Hollywood.

"I wasn't as p***ed as I should have been. I mean, we get paid a lot, so it's hard to complain, but the disparity is crazy."

The star has recently made the move back to Hollywood following two years of living in Paris with Benjamin Millepied and their five-year-old son, Aleph.

Portman, who is now pregnant with the couple's second child, is one of the biggest female actresses in Hollywood and has once-again been tipped for Oscar gold.

Jackie could bag her another of the most coveted prizes in Hollywood, with the star taking on the role of Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis - the wife of President John F. Kennedy.

The film takes place following the assassination of the President in 1963, and sees her fight through grief and trauma to regain her faith, console her children, and define her husband's legacy.