Anne Hathaway has said critics of climate change campaigner Greta Thunberg display “textbook misogyny."

The actress, pictured below, hit out at a backlash against the 16-year-old Swedish activist’s impassioned speech at the United Nations last month, in which she called on world leaders to do more to tackle climate change.

Some commentators labelled the Nobel Prize nominee as “hysterical.”

US President Donald Trump appeared to mock Thunberg after the speech, tweeting: “She seems like a very happy young girl looking forward to a bright and wonderful future. So nice to see!”

Hathaway told the Evening Standard: “If you think about the way she is being criticised, it is textbook misogyny, textbook patronising, it is all these things.

“I think one of the best things to focus on about her is she speaks from a place of passion and emotion. She is speaking science to power.

"I admire her and I am glad to see I am not the only one.”

Hathaway said she has “cared about the environment for a really long time”, adding: “When I had my son I started to think about consuming things in a different way.

"I think I was like everyone in that I would just use things and then not think about what happened when I threw it out.

"I think we all have a responsibility to not just mindlessly follow the path of convenience. And I know that is an incredibly privileged thing to say. That not everyone has a choice, but everyone can do something.”

Hathaway also praised the film and television industry for making more effort to portray mental health in a different light. She has previously spoken about having anxiety and depression.

The actor is set to appear alongside Tina Fey, Dev Patel and Andrew Scott in the anticipated Amazon Prime Video series Modern Love, which is based on the New York Times dating and relationships column of the same name.

She said: “I can’t remember another character I’d come across as an actor or as a viewer [who was a] bipolar woman trying to find love. The inclusion of that story seemed very modern to me. And that can’t be a bad thing.”

She added that people were now more “honest about who we are and what makes up our life. And that is creating a much greater space for tolerance and acceptance and inclusion.” Her comments come on World Mental Health Day.

Modern Love is available on Prime Video from Friday October 18.