Nicola Wheeler is best known for playing feisty Nicola King in Emmerdale, but she hasn't always had the opportunity to enjoy such a prominent role.
The 46-year-old ITV soap star has opened up about the lack of roles there were when she was a young actress.
Speaking in a recent interview, Nicola said: "I remember that when I was at drama school, we were taken on in a ratio of 2:1. It would be two males to one female.
"Our drama school wasn't being sexist, they were just adamant that unfortunately that was the ratio of the roles available.
"We were warned as young actresses that there just weren't the roles out there. A lot of plays were centred around men, but there weren't as many female roles in theatre. But I do think that is changing now," she added to Digital Spy magazine.
However, it doesn't necessarily get any easier for women as they get older and add to their CVs.
"Women, for some reason, cannot age and cannot put on weight," she said.
"When men do that, they tend to be seen as more interesting by the industry and they get the interesting roles…there seems to be an attitude that people don't want to see older women on screen, and I'm not so sure that's true."
Nicola continued: "I think it's more to do with the attitudes of people who are making things! Maybe that will change as women take on more producer roles."
However, she went on to praise the soap industry for having the confidence to give lead roles to women.
"Soap definitely wasn't afraid to say that females could take the central role. I think they realised their biggest audience was probably females!" she added.
Nicola's Emmerdale character has been embroiled in some drama with her husband Jimmy King in recent weeks, after he found out she had secretly met up with his ex, Juliette Holliday.
The full soap star interviews can be read in issue seven of Digital Spy magazine, available now exclusively on Apple News+
