Riley Keough plays a law student and sex worker on Starz’s “The Girlfriend Experience.” The rising star explained the allure of the meaty role to The Hollywood Reporter: the chance to play an all-too-rare multidimensional female character. “The one thing I said in the beginning is that I’m not going be able to play what you would imagine a generic, sexy law student moonlighting as an escort to be,” she recalled.

Part of her preparation for the role was to meet with “high-end” sex workers. “They were actually very smart women; most of them were probably more intelligent than me,” Keough acknowledged. “It kind of put me in my place, and it opened my eyes to the fact that there are intelligent college students putting themselves through school that way and enjoy it. I didn’t know anything about sex work before, but it was fine because I was playing Christine as she discovers this.”

But most roles she’s considered for don’t require this level of research or introspection. Keough is being invited to audition for “the pretty girl, the sexy girlfriend” — a reflection of how Hollywood represents women onscreen. She said, “The roles they write for women are so shitty. I think part of me just rebels against it, so I immediately make myself not able to do [the part]. I walk in the room, and they are like, ‘Oh, never mind.’”

The “Max Max: Fury Road” actress offered a refreshingly honest answer when asked what the biggest misconception about her is. “Not to be an asshole,” she began, “but people are expecting a hot dumb girl, whereas I am sort of cynical and smart. I know from auditions because I get called in to do roles, and I’m like, ‘You don’t know me. I am not going to be able to play that well.’”

“Our options [as actresses] still are limited,” Keough summarized. She did, however, specify that the scripts she’s “reading right now in film versus TV [are] like night and day.” “I think because it’s scary to go outside the box when you’re trying to sell a blockbuster,” she speculated. “And if there is a good movie, there are five girls who are going to do it, and all of the other ones have to play the dumb girlfriend forever until they finally get their chance.”

Keough also took the opportunity to praise two fellow actresses, Brie Larson (“Room”) and Alicia Vikander (“The Danish Girl”). She said that she feels “empowered” by the pair. “Now we’re demanding more-intelligent and less-two-dimensional roles. It’s breaking down that stupid thing where you have to be a dumb blond girl with big boobs.”