Ever wondered what Hollywood's most fabulous women discuss when they get together for a casual wine and cheese night?
Thanks to Entertainment Weekly's "Beyond Beautiful" issue, we now get the chance to be a fly on the wall during a particularly candid conversation between Reese Witherspoon, Kerry Washington, Eva Longoria and Elizabeth Banks on all things women in the entertainment industry.
The powerhouse actresses, who also appear together on the mag's cover, swap stories and hatch plans for further world domination (well not really, but they might as well be).
On the pressures women face, Washington likened her experience to one felt by all minorities in the industry.
"It's this idea you have to be twice as good to get half of what they have," the Scandal star explained. "It's something that most black people I talk to, when they heard that line, it completely resonated with how they were raised and the messaged their parents gave them."
The outspoken star believes "the pressure to be extraordinary," is the "same for women," adding, "You just know, you have to be twice as good. In a way, until girls don't have that feeling, we will not have done our jobs."
Banks echoed Kerry's statements as well, recalling feelings of being "underused" when she first set out to act. "I'm competitive naturally as a human being. And suddenly I was in an industry that said, 'You can just sit over there and wait and we'll call you,' the Pitch Perfect 2 director revealed.
But even decades after establishing a successful career, Witherspoon expressed she still encounters "awful, terrible" scripts that place female characters on the back burner.
Offering one alarming example, the Oscar winner says after turning down a part, "[The filmmakers] said, 'Well this actress is chasing it, that actress is chasing it: three Oscar winners and two huge box office leading ladies.' And I thought, 'Oh, that's where we're at? You're fighting to be the girlfriend in a dumb comedy? For what?' And by the way, two Oscar winners did it."
As for any changes these leading ladies hope to see for women in the future?
In reference to events celebrating women in Hollywood, Washington believes, "It'll be so exciting when we don't have to do this because we're just equal players at the table."
For more, check out this week's issue of Entertainment Weekly on newsstands Feb. 5.
Carey Mulligan also has a lot to say about gender equality. Watch the video above.