Oscar-nominated actress Margot Robbie has told a magazine she feels heartbroken when she watches Marilyn Monroe’s films, lamenting that the parts played by the Hollywood icon were “misogynistic and degrading”.

The 27-year-old actress from Down Under, who watched a lot of old movies to prepare for her role in her next, Dreamland, said the fact that playing eye-candy type roles was the norm for the female actors in Marilyn’s time baffled her to no end.

“I love old films, but my heart breaks when I watch Marilyn Monroe’s, because the characters she plays are so misogynistic and degrading that it’s mind-boggling that that was the norm. The same with Bonnie And Clyde; parts of it make my blood boil,” Robbie told Stylist magazine.

Marilyn , famous for playing “blonde bombshell” characters in comic capers like The Seven Year Itch and How to Marry a Millionaire, became one of the most popular sex symbols of the 1950s and continues to have an enduring impact in pop culture. 

Robbie, who turned producer with her Oscar-nominated film I, Tonya, said people should be paid on merit or on “box-office value”, irrespective of their gender.