Hilary Swank is "excited" to see women around the world "uniting" against sexual harassment.

Hilary Swank

Hilary Swank

The 43-year-old actress believes the Me Too movement - a viral campaign in which people are making a stand against sexual violence, especially in the workplace - is the biggest platform for women to speak out since they campaigned for voting rights in the early 1900s.

Speaking at cultural organisation Liberatum's first three-day event in Mexico City, she said: "In Mexico and around the world, we now have a platform that they gave us.

"All the women of the world are united.

"This is the most exciting moment since [US] women got the vote in 1921."

The two-time Oscar winner - who won Best Actress Academy Awards for movies 'Boy's Don't Cry' and 'Million Dollar Baby' - admitted she never set out to be a huge star and win multiple prizes, she just wanted to act.

According to Mexican publication Quien, she added: "When I was a little girl I thought, 'OK, I want to be an actress, I want to do this,' and I never said 'no.'

"I didn't want to go to Hollywood to win an Oscar. I wanted to go to Hollywood and act.

"I wanted to tell the same stories that inspired me as a child."

In 2016, Hilary highlighted the gender pay gap by revealing she had previously turned down a film role after being offered $9.5 million less than her male co-star.

She explained: "Then I win my second Academy Award, and the next couple movies later, I get offered a movie. The male [lead] hadn't had any kind of critical success, but had been in a movie where he was hot. And he got offered $10 million, and I got offered $500,000. That's the truth. The truth.

"And then they went and found a newcomer who did it for $50,000.

"So they made a savings of $450,000, probably to give the guy his bonuses."


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