From playing kick-ass characters such as Imperator Furiosa in Mad Max: Fury Road to Lorraine Broughton in Atomic Blonde, you’d be forgiven for thinking that Charlize Theron wouldn’t be the type of person who would apologise for her opinions or beliefs.

And yet, Theron has spoken honestly about finding herself doing just that by apologising for calling herself a feminist – and she’s done with it.

“I’m proud to say that I am a f**king feminist,” Theron told Kweku Mandela, Nelson Mandela’s grandson, during a discussion at the Los Angeles’ Geffen Playhouse about Mandela’s legacy.

But Theron admitted that in the past it was a word she wasn’t always very comfortable with.

“I remember always saying being a feminist meant a different thing to everybody. And I would apologise for it. And I had to ask, why was that? Why couldn’t I just say, ‘Yes, I’m a feminist?’,” Theron explained.

And Theron didn’t stop there. As the gender pay gap has been a hot topic in previous months, of course, she approached the subject – without caution. Admitting that she felt “lucky” to receive the same pay as her co-star Chris Hemsworth in The Huntsman: Winter’s War, she soon realised this was an error and backtracked.

“No, I didn’t feel lucky,” Theron said, correcting herself. “I deserved that and I asked for it.”

Charlize Theron flawlessly explains why women need to stop being polite