#MeToo overdue, exciting: Sigourney Weaver

"Alien" star Sigourney Weaver believes #MeToo movement is an important step in the battle for equality at workplace.

The actor, who is currently working on "Avatar 2 and 3" with James Cameron, believes there is a "sense of sisterhood" in the women now.

"What has been accomplished with #MeToo is such an important step in the battle for equality in the workplace. I think actually nowadays, women, in my opinion, do try to help each other. There's a greater sense of sisterhood. When I was in college we really thought we would get equality in the constitution. We're still waiting!," she told The Hollywood Reporter in an interview on the sidelines of Rome Film Festival.

The 69-year-old actor said there was a need for more diversity at the crew level in Hollywood, something that has not be prioritised until now.

"I think the answer is, the unions and the studios need to actively start embracing that now. Everyone that I work with agrees that it would be so much better if, when you looked around the stage, it reflected what life is like in America, which is a diverse community," she added.

Weaver, whose role in "Alien" was originally written for a man, supports the reimagining of women in roles written for men.

"I always said to writers that the secret to writing any woman character is to just write the character. Think of her as a man, and then don't change a word. Have a woman play her. Don't make any kind of strange scenes where she suddenly collapses into tears because, 'oh we have to make her sympathetic." That has always been a huge problem.

"They've been told to make the women sympathetic, when of course that's what we admire in a man. They don't suddenly break down in a corner. It's a huge step forward in the battle for equality, for women in general in our country, and I think #MeToo extends all around the planet. It's very exciting. It's overdue. It absolutely needed to happen...