George Clooney thinks he has a solution to Hollywood's sexism problem

George Clooney, lawyer's husband, believes he has a plan to end Hollywood's problem with sexism: cast more women in male roles.

The actor has explained that Sandra Bullock's role in the film Our Brand is Crisis, which he has just helped to co-produce, was initially intended to be played by a male actor and Clooney thinks this could be done for "a lot more" roles.

It was Bullock herself who came up with the idea for a woman to play the role but Clooney and his co-producer Grant Heslov got on board straight away.

Speaking after the movie's premiere at the Toronto Film Festival, Clooney explained to The Wrap that "the minute she called and said she wanted to play the role that had been written as a man" the film began moving toward production.

Hollywood's diversity problem is incredibly well-documented, with women, people of colour and those from the LGBT community under-represented and often underpaid compared to their white, male counterparts.

But as Time magazine points out, there are several female actors in upcoming films who are playing roles originally intended for men. As well as Bullock in Our Brand is Crisis, there is Emily Blunt’s FBI agent in Sicario and Julia Roberts’ part in Secret in Their Eyes.

“There’s a lot more out there if people just started thinking,” Clooney concluded. Maybe they could just start writing more roles for women in the first place?

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