Australian star Cate Blanchett says she is disappointed the #MeToo movement “got killed very quickly” in Hollywood.

Blanchett has questioned why the initiative got “shut down” when it had such a power to effect change.

“It got killed very quickly, which I think is interesting,” Blanchett said in a conversation with moderator Didier Allouch at the Cannes Film Festival on Sunday (local time).

“There are a lot of people with platforms who are able to speak up with relative safety and say ‘this has happened to me’. And the so-called average woman on the street, person on the street, is saying me too. Why does that get shut down?

“What the movement revealed is a systemic layer of abuse, not only in this industry but in all industries, and if you don’t identify a problem, you can’t solve the problem.”

The #MeToo movement – in which women in the public eye spoke about their experiences of sexual misconduct in their careers – gained traction in October 2017, following sexual abuse allegations against Harvey Weinstein.

Blanchett, 57, also highlighted the continued gender imbalance on film sets. She said she thought being in male-dominated environments had an “effect on the work”.

“I’m still on film sets and I do the headcount every day. There’s 10 women and there’s 75 men every morning,” she said.

“I love men, but what happens is the jokes become the same.

“You just have to brace yourself slightly, and I’m used to that. But it just gets boring for everybody when you walk into a homogeneous workplace. I think it has an effect on the work.”

At the 2018 Cannes Film Festival, Cate was president of the jury and led a women’s march in which 82 woman – including Kristen Stewart, Lea Seydoux and Ava DuVernay – held hands to walk up the steps of the Palais des Festivals. The march highlighted the fact that, until that point, just 82 women had competed at Cannes – in contrast to 1866 male directors from the same period.

“Women are not a minority in the world, yet the current state of the industry says otherwise,” she said at the time.

“As women, we all face our own unique challenges, but we stand together on these stairs today as a symbol of our determination and commitment to progress.

“We are writers, producers, directors, actresses, cinematographers, talent agents, editors, distributors, sales agents and all involved in the cinematic arts.”