Emma Thompson has recently been in the news, but for matters other than acting.

The two-time Oscar winner joined last month's Extinction Rebellion climate protest, adding her celebrity voice to the London sit-ins, the centrepiece of which was a pink tugboat.

She was immediately criticised for flying back from Los Angeles (a trip of over 5,400 miles (8690km)) to attend the event.

So does Thompson regret speaking out? Quite the contrary.

She tells Sky News: "I've stuck my head above the parapet since I was 19 and had s*** thrown at it since I was 19.

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Image: Thompson gestures as police surround the Extinction Rebellion pink tugboat in central London

"When it first happened, I was protesting the Gulf War at which point the press called me 'Saddam Hussein's best friend'. If you protest about anything, you have to be prepared for whatever slings and arrows."

The 60-year-old actress is currently playing the role of late-night talk show host Katherine Newbury – a character who is equally as fearless as Thompson herself.

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Unfortunately, this is a purely fictional scenario – in real life, there is no such thing.

Late-night US chat shows are a male-dominated affair, only briefly interrupted by Joan Rivers for a few years in the late '80s.

In the UK we don't tend to care for too much late-night chat full stop. And when we do (stand up Jonathan Ross and Graham Norton) it is again, a male-only gig.

Emma Thompson (L) and Mindy Kaling (R) promoting Late Night in Las Vegas in April
Image: Emma Thompson (L) and Mindy Kaling (R) promoting Late Night in Las Vegas in April

The late Caroline Aherne's creation, The Mrs Merton Show, is a close contender, but of course she had to fictionalise her 70-year-old female host to make her palatable for mainstream TV.

Even in the fictional world of her new movie Late Night, a woman at the helm of her own show is a hard pill to swallow, and Thompson's Newbury quickly finds herself fighting for her job.

An up-and-coming, and somewhat misogynistic male stand-up artist is lined up to take her role.

In the film, it is this crisis point which reignites Newbury's passion for her job and teaches her to play to her own strengths.

The character is, as she summarises, "an English woman who's never watched a Superhero movie".

To help her save her job, her all-male, all-white writing team is shaken up with the addition of "diversity hire" Molly, played by Mindy Kaling, who also wrote the film.

So what is the reality of being a woman over 50, working in Hollywood?

Quite simply, Thompson is clear she is not. A woman working in Hollywood, that is.

Actor and environmentalist Emma Thompson was at the Extinction Rebellion protest in Marble Arch.
Image: Thompson at the Extinction Rebellion protest in Marble Arch

"I've always lived in London… And I rarely work in Hollywood."

That aside, she admits she had a "real bald patch" in her 40s, where the only interesting roles she was offered were the ones she'd written herself.

"I got offered an awful lot of wives who were saying to their husbands, 'Don't go and do the brave thing, stay here with me'.

"So I said no to loads of that stuff. And I wasn't sex'cougar' – style roles. I wasn't ever going to get those. So, I was in between two stools.

"But once I turned 50, I started playing things like Robert Carlyle's serial killer mother who was 77. And I got that fantastic Saving Mr Banks."

She says the Disney role, playing Mary Poppins author P L Travers, was one of her favourite roles to date, alongside this one.

Both are strong women, who don't necessarily foster a smooth working relationship with their colleagues.

<center><a class="spreaker-player" href="https://www.spreaker.com/episode/18131596" data-resource="episode_id=18131596" data-width="600px" data-height="600px" data-theme="light" data-playlist="show" data-playlist-continuous="true" data-autoplay="false" data-live-autoplay="false" data-chapters-image="true" data-episode-image-position="right" data-hide-logo="true" data-hide-likes="false" data-hide-comments="false" data-hide-sharing="false" data-hide-download="false" data-cover="https://d3wo5wojvuv7l.cloudfront.net/images.spreaker.com/original/e1cc09c65a04550625e0d1fe30f589c4.jpg">Listen to "Backstage at Sundance Film Festival London" on Spreaker.</a> <script async src="https://widget.spreaker.com/widgets.js"></script></center>

Newbury is a woman who has reached the top of her game, but who is not an ally to her female colleagues down below.

So where does this propensity for women to hate other women come from? Or at the very least not go out of their way to help sisters in need?

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