The Hollywood Reporter's Actress Roundtable

The Hollywood Reporter recently gathered Jennifer Lopez, Kerry Washington, Julianna Margulies, Sarah Paulson, Kirsten Dunst, Regina King, and Constance Zimmer for an actress roundtable interview. Here are some of the highlights:

As actresses, what have been the most overtly sexist things you've experienced in your careers?

KERRY WASHINGTON 

"I'm in this very surreal environment right now having Shonda Rhimes as my boss, where it's almost the opposite. It is specified in scripts that guys take their shirts off all the time."

JULIANNA MARGULIES 

"Is it really?"

WASHINGTON 

"The guys are naked all the time! And she has said to all the women on the show: "You want to do a love scene in a parka? You just let me know." So it's this weird, like, reparations moment where the girls get to do what they want to do and the guys get to do what they want to do, but they know what Shonda wants them to do."

CONSTANCE ZIMMER 

"On UnREAL, we have two female leads, female showrunners and writers, and it's very driven toward us being empowered, which is definitely different. We can treat the men a bit like how we may have been treated earlier in our careers or just as women in general. It's fun to watch the tables be turned and to see the guys on set eating lettuce. (Laughter.)"

SARAH PAULSON "

I've never been asked to play the [romantic] leading lady without having to be a blonde."

Are you naturally a brunette?

PAULSON 

"Yes. I don't mind it, I like the blond — but to be told that in order to be considered a romantic lady opposite some hunky guy, I need to have long blond hair that looked very L.A. Real Housewives? It does do something to your brain. You go, "Gosh, so the way I came into the world is not as appealing as it would be if I were altered in some way?" That's a funny message to extend to a person. And that's the other thing: I did it. I put the extensions in, I blonded it up."

MARGULIES 

"Well, you've got to pay your rent! (Laughs.)"

JENNIFER LOPEZ 

"I've always been fascinated by how much more well-behaved we have to be than men."

In what way?

LOPEZ 

"I got a moniker of being "the diva," which I never felt I deserved — which I don't deserve — because I've always been a hard worker, on time, doing what I'm supposed to do, and getting that label because you reach a certain amount of success …"

PAULSON 

"And you care about something enough to give your opinion."

LOPEZ 

"Or even sometimes I felt crippled to voice my opinion, especially because certain directors and the boys' club that they form can make you feel like, "Oh, I can't say anything." I was always fascinated by how I could see [a man] being late or being belligerent to a crew and it being totally acceptable; meanwhile, I'd show up 15 minutes late and be berated. And you watch this happen over and over and over again. Like, we're not allowed to have certain opinions or even be passionate about something, or they'll be like, "God, she's really difficult." It's like, "Am I? Am I difficult because I care?"

Read the full interview at The Hollywood Reporter.