“We can now be 40”

“I saw a movie the other day that I really wanted to be in, and I’m so glad I’m not in that damn movie,” she said, recalling how women “fought” to portray unfavorable dynamics.

After a decades-long career in Hollywood, Minnie Driver talks about how the industry has fundamentally changed for women since the 1990s.

During a panel discussion hosted by PEOPLE Weekly entertainment and Starz for the second season of The Snake Queen at The London West Hollywood on Tuesday, July 9, the 54-year-old actress shared her observations on how opportunities for women in the entertainment industry have evolved since her big break over 20 years ago.

“Today we can be over 40,” she said. “It’s different. I don’t know what made me think that women were just getting into it, even though I think they’ve already gone through the rigors of being seen only sexually.”

Related: The Snake Queen: France is ‘divided’ as Minnie Driver’s Queen Elizabeth I appears in season 2 trailer (exclusive)

Driver explained that female sexuality was no longer its “obvious power” and that women’s roles were shaped by the “extraordinary expansion that comes with growing older,” by motherhood and the decision to remain childless, and by how the body had changed.

“I saw a movie the other day that I really wanted to be in, and I’m so glad I’m not in that damn movie,” she recalls. “Because I was conditioned to think that because that was the best thing that was available at the time and everyone was vying for the same role.”

Driver revealed that she saw the same film with her now 15-year-old son, who “couldn’t believe” that an actress wanted to be in it.

Related: Minnie Driver says marrying ex-fiancé Josh Brolin was ‘the biggest mistake of my life’

“That was the kind of dynamic we fought for and longed for,” she added. “And you realize there’s so much more variety in what’s required of an actress now, which is invigorating and amazing.”

This is not the first time that Driver has spoken about his unfair treatment in the 1990s.

During his appearance on Jameela Jamil’s SiriusXM podcast I weigh with Jameela Jamil In April, the actress said the producers behind Heavy rainwhich takes place entirely during a massive rainstorm, did not allow her to wear a wetsuit as part of her character’s costume.

Related: Minnie Driver is close to tears as she recalls the style tip her late mother gave her at the 1998 Oscars: ‘The dress fell down’

“There were huge rain machines. We shot crazy hours. It was hard, well, it was a hard film, but everyone else could wear a wetsuit under their costume,” said Driver. “And the producers told me I couldn’t because they wanted to see my nipples, and there was no point in wearing the wet T-shirt if you couldn’t see what was underneath.”

Driver said she complained to her agent about being asked to wear a wetsuit like the other actors on set (the film also starred Morgan Freeman, Christian Slater and Randy Quaid), and after she spoke out, “people on set didn’t want to talk to me anymore.”

“There was this kind of – I was so punished for it,” Driver said on the podcast, also claiming that her complaints were leaked to the media, “like there was nothing to complain about and like I was just complaining.”

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The Snake Queen Season 2 premieres July 12 at 8 p.m. ET/PT on Starz.

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