Tessa Thompson slams Hollywood for describing women as 'badass'

Thor: Ragnarok's Tessa Thompson as Valkyrie. Photo: Jasin Boland/Marvel Studios 2017

Tessa Thompson is sick of "dumb, male writer" using one particular to describe women in Hollywood scripts, and it's not what you'd think.

The star, who is set to play Valkyrie in Taika Waititi's Thor: Ragnarok, told the LA Times: "There's one word I hate in all scripts in Hollywood at the moment in describing women, and that is the word 'badass.'"

"That word has just crept into every script that is pushed around this town now," she said.

"It's terrible, because it doesn't mean anything. It's a dumb male writer's way of saying, 'Ah, uh, she's like, she, uh, she's tough.' Then straight after that it's like, 'She's badass, but she's got a beauty about her. And she's sexy. Unconsciously sexy.'"

Tessa Thompson (Valkyrie) and Director Taika Waititi. Photo: Jasin Boland/Marvel Studios

But she also spoke specifically about working with New Zealand's own Taika Waititi to remedy the issue; making a character who is more relevant to 2017.

"There's an unfair position that women are sometimes put in, in the context of superhero movies and action movies where at once they have to be very strong and fierce, but also sexy," Thompson told the Times.

"Obviously, it's still a superhero movie and so you've got to figure out when you need to stand with your hands on your hips and what makes sense. But we wanted to create a character that occupied her own iconography."

Thor: Ragnarok is due to release October 26.