Chloë Sevigny has opened up about her “creepy” audition experiences in a new interview with The Guardian.

The cult icon – who is currently in Cannes promoting her directorial debut, Kitty – revealed that she been treated inappropriately by “mainstream” directors on several separate occasions throughout her career.

“I did audition for some bigger directors who were more mainstream and they were creepy situations,” she shared. “One asked me, ‘What are you doing after the audition?’ which is just inappropriate, obviously knowing what he wanted. Another one wanted to bring me shopping and have me try on clothes.”

The “worst” experience, according to Sevigny, was when one (unnamed) director started urging her to “show off” her body more. “I went in and I was dressed a little provocatively because I was dressing the part,” the Kids actress explained. “He’s like ‘Oh you should show your body off more before you get too old .... you should show it off now, you never show your body.’ I’m like actually I’ve been nude in almost every movie I’ve done so I don’t know what you’re watching!”

She went on to stress that she felt it was important for women in Hollywood to keep a “strong sense of self” during the casting process, as men will “often make advances”.

“You just have to know how to protect yourself,” she added. “The behaviour that (male directors are) allowed to get away with is celebrated and it makes people think they are just even more talented because they exude these behaviours that are eccentric. Whereas when females do it, they get labelled as crazy and they don’t work again. Why can’t the woman be the mad genius as well? There’s just not room for that right now, unfortunately. Women get judged in such an unfair way.”

Listen to the interview in full here.