It's been a challenging six months for the film industry, following the wake of the Weinstein scandal in October last year. An outpouring of women, both high-profile or otherwise, have consequently come forward with their personal stories of sexual assault, gender inequality and rape, prompting the birth of the Time's Up movement and #MeToo campaign - beacons of hope amid the darkness.



As female voices have finally become heard, numerous men have shown their solidarity by either vocally showing their support or on the red carpet with Time's Up pins. It's a murky area and not everyone's got it right - Matt Damon, for example, has been widely criticised for his comments on the subject.

Avengers star Benedict Cumberbatch seems to have a more considered, practical way of addressing the issue. His approach has three key facets - he believes conversation, as well as action is required if we want to see any meaningful change, and also acknowledges his fortunate position and the responsibility that comes with it.

The actor - who next week returns as Dr Strange in Marvel's Avengers: Infinity War - runs his own film company, which is dominated by women.

"We need to keep the discussion burning hot and not just at awards ceremonies," he told us. "It needs to run our industry at all times of the year to make sure that there is equal pay and a place at the table – equality, that’s what that means. We need to push for that and great roles for women of all ages is also equally important."

While he acknowledges that he speaks "from a very privileged point of view as a public school-educated, middle class white dude", he is also aware of the duty that comes with that privilege - and praises Marvel for creating empowered roles for women that defy stereotypes.

"I’m very aware of it when I see it and I’ll do as much as I can to stamp it out," he said. "As an industry, it's been a shocking wake up call to find out that this is still really going on behind closed doors. #Times Up and #MeToo is part of what real superheroes do; it's a collective movement to empowerment and it's amazing that happened. It's about people, about survivors being strong enough to speak up, and expose themselves to say 'this really happened to me and it must stop now and I need your support'. Long may the unearthing of those truths continue."

Avengers: Infinity War hits cinemas on 26 April

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