Emilia Clarke Is So Over This 'Sexist' Term to Describe Female Characters

"I'm gonna tell you how it feels to play a woman. The end. That's it," the "Game of Thrones" star told Variety Tuesday at the Cannes Film Festival. "Take the strong out of it. Find another adjective, dammit! I'm just playing women. If it's not strong, what is it? You're telling me that there's another option? There's like a weak option? You think a lead in a movie is gonna be a weak woman?"

The actress, who has a prominent role in "Solo: A Star Wars Story," said the topic "doesn't even bear having a conversation" and asked journalists and publications alike to "please" give up using the word "strong" to describe a female lead.

"Let's just be women," she said, suggesting alternative questions could be, "How does it feel to play a female lead in a big blockbuster movie?" or "How does it feel to play someone with power?"

"The list goes on," she said, leaning into the male reporter. "But yeah, so I get very frustrated with that in particular because you don't get 'strong men,' unless they're like physically strong men. Do you know what I mean? Unless I'm packing guns I don't know about, then let's change that."

The reporter looked at Clarke and then panned the room, saying, "And there's journalists here, so maybe we can start with the training that you just gave everyone so we can stop using that word because I think people may just do it not knowing."

"Or just ask boys how it feels to be strong," Clarke replied.

Regarding the gender pay gap in Hollywood, Clarke said she's "always been paid the same amount" as her male co-stars."

"It was my first job, and I was not discriminated against because I was a woman in my paycheck," she said. "So when there would come a job where that was maybe being discussed, again, it's shocking -- actually shocking. And then you start to dig deep, and you start to see where it is -- rife in the industry."

Clarke said a way to combat the pay disparity is to "be aware of it," address it "in the beginning" and "fight harder for that stuff."

"Solo: A Star Wars Story" hits theaters May 25.