It’s been a long time coming, but, finally, the issue of equality is a hot-button topic all throughout the film world. Filmmakers like Ava DuVernay and Elizabeth Banks are both challenging the status quo while making award-winning and box-office-topping films like Selma and Pitch Perfect 2, respectively, and the American Civil Liberties Union has begun taking Hollywood to task for its widespread exclusion of women behind the camera.

Naturally, the issue is now a must-ask question for interviewers while chatting with female directors and actresses. In an interview with Indiewire, Jennifer Connelly and filmmaker Claudia Llosa, who directed Connelly’s new indie movie Aloft (which screened at this year’s Tribeca Film Festival), candidly addressed the gender gap.

“I think that balance that we are always trying to achieve is only going to happen if we accept the balance in ourselves,” Llosa commented to Indiewire. “If we really believe we can balance ourselves. I do believe that. Believing in that balance makes the difference."

"I've never heard someone asking a guy, like a director, how do you deal with being a father and a director, you know?" added Llosa. "If we are asking that question to a female director, we are in a way implying that there's no possible balance. And that's insane.”

Connelly, one of Hollywood’s most respected A-list actresses, also offered her thoughts: “I don't think that we've reached gender parity yet. You can see in the statistics of violence against women, inequality of pay between men and women. We've come a long way… I think there are always exceptions to the rule. But by and large, it feels that we still haven't achieved total equality in our culture.”

Head over to Indiewire to read the full interview.

Aloft opened in limited theaters last Friday.