Throughout her career, Keira Knightley has been anything but shy when asked about Hollywood’s disappointing lack of female stories and creators. She has consistently spoken her mind and continues to do so in 2018. Knightley believes that her latest project, “Colette,” particularly speaks to the current feminist climate.

In a recent interview with Variety, Knightley stresses the continued lack of female stories and respectable portrayals thereof. Though this has improved lately, especially with the rise of streaming services like Netflix and Amazon, she still defaults to historical pieces, because modern “female characters nearly always get raped.”

Alongside many of her fellow actresses, she recognizes the current #MeToo and #TimesUp climate as an “eye-opener” to the detrimental dynamics that persist both on- and off-screen. “For too long, you really did go, ‘Oh, this is just normal,’” she said. “It’s terrifying that was our response … There’s been a lot of pain and a lot of suffering. We’re in a period of time in which it all has to come out. Then we need to move forward and figure out how to make sure that it doesn’t happen again.”

One of the many ways to accomplish this goal involves hiring more women. As Knightley emphasizes, “when there are female writers and directors and producers, the parts for women are better, and so the way that society views women through drama is much better and much more well rounded.”

Knightley’s latest project, “Colette,” explores the dynamics between bisexual French writer Colette and her abusive husband, who forced her to write under his name. The biopic will premiere at the 2018 Sundance Film Festival on January 20.

Knightley will also appear in three other films this year: the post-WWII-set “The Aftermath,” anthology “Berlin, I Love You,” and holiday film “The Nutcracker and the Four Realms.”