Meryl Streep on Hollywood Gender Gap: 'We Need Older White Males to Be Interested'

Just days after coming under fire for her comments that "we are all Africans" at the Berlin Film Festival, Meryl Streep is being praised for speaking out about the gender gap in Hollywood.

Streep, who is acting as president of the jury at this year's festival, made headlines last week when an Egyptian reporter asked the actress if she believes she could understand films from North Africa and the Middle East. Streep replied, "I've played a lot of different people from a lot of different cultures.

"There is a core of humanity that travels right through every culture, and after all, we're all from Africa originally," she said. "Berliners, we're all Africans, really."

Now, Streep is offering up her opinion on the Hollywood gender pay gap. Speaking in a master class at the festival Sunday, the actress chided older film executives, saying, "We need 40- to 50-year-old white males to be interested in the stories of their wives and their mothers. [Older men] don't feel invested in that journey. Younger men do, and that's good."

She also said "you have to make noise" to to get more women into leading roles. On diversity in general, Streep said: "Our industry will always depend on diversity in the boardroom, where the money is. All the talk about equality and diversity among the lower levels of the endeavor won't change things if the money and decisions are still made by one people whose taste will necessarily decide what kind of films will be made."

Later in the day, Streep also discussed Hollywood's apparent obsession with youth and beauty, and how she attributes her lack of worrying about those qualities to her success, saying it ultimately contributed to the variety of characters she's been able to portray.

The Berlin Film Festival runs now through Feb. 21 in Berlin.