Melissa McCarthy has been campaigning for pay parity with her male co-stars for years.

Melissa McCarthy

Melissa McCarthy

The 47-year-old actress - who is directed by her husband, Ben Falcone, in new movie 'Life of the Party' - has revealed that she's been fighting for parity well before the Time's Up campaign started demanding equal pay for actresses.

She shared: "I've never acted any differently. I've always been aware of, 'Well, what's everyone getting?' If we're all getting 75 cents to do the same work, great! I'll take the 75 cents.

"If someone's getting $900 ... I haven't changed. Maybe that's why it took me so long to start working. I just always thought, 'Well, is it fair?'"

In her latest film, Melissa's character - a homemaker who is abandoned by her cheating husband - decides to return to university to finish her studies.

And the Hollywood star has admitted that she'd also like to return to studying one day, having abandoned academia to pursue her ambitions as a comedian.

She told USA Today newspaper: "I actually really do want to go back to school someday."

But Melissa - who attended the Fashion Institute of Technology in New York - explained that on her second night in the Big Apple, " I did stand-up, and I called my parents and said, 'I'm not going back to school and I'm going to do the rock-solid business of stand-up comedy'".