Reese Witherspoon has spoken out about the so-called Smurfette Syndrome in Hollywood after a 25-year career often being the only woman on set.

Explaining how majority female casts are still rare, the Oscar and Bafta-winning actress said she has been used to having no women to talk to when working.

Speaking at the Television Critics Association winter press tour, she said it is high time we “start seeing women as they really are in film”.

The 40-year-old is currently taking matters into her own hands by both producing and starring in new HBO series Big Little Lies, whose cast boasts the likes of Nicole Kidman, Laura Dern, Shailene Woodley and Zoe Kravitz.

According to Vanity Fair, director Jean-Marc Vallee encouraged the team of five to “share dinners and wine” rather than more “traditional rehearsal projects” in order to create genuine intimacy on set.

The Legally Blonde star said: “I’m passionate because things have to change. We have to start seeing women as they really are in film – and not just in a movie theatre with a tiny budget.

“We need to see real women’s experience, whether it involves domestic violence, whether it involves sexual assault, whether it involves motherhood or romance or infidelity or divorce.

“It’s a unique pleasure to be able to come to other women with a piece of material I feel deeply proud of and excited to see their performance – these are the kinds of things that shift consciousness.”