In her new film thriller "Eye in the Sky", she plays an army colonel, a role originally written for a man, reported BB online.
The 70-year-old actress said it made her "cross" that many roles were given to men regardless of whether it was the lead character.
"You look at a scene and it's going to be all men around a table and you think at least half of those could have been women," she said.
"It's so hard to get a job as an actress, let alone as a star but just a job - to be a working actress it's so much more difficult than it is for men".
"The only time that there is more women on the set as extras is a swimming pool scene and they're all in bikinis - any swimming pool scene and suddenly it's full of women.