Taraji P. Henson believes she has been unfairly treated in comparison to her male colleagues.

The 55-year-old actress - who got her movie breakthrough in John Singleton's 2001 coming-of-age movie Baby Boy alongside Tyrese Gibson - believes Tyrese was given more opportunities than her because he is a man.

Speaking on Hoda Kotb's Making Space podcast, she said: "That was huge for me. I was I was a female lead. I was new to Hollywood, and I just remember everybody coming to me going, 'Oh my God, you're gonna blow up. Do you understand what John Singleton does to people's careers? Look at this person and this person'.

"But I don't know, discernment told me something different. And I just knew it wasn't gonna be that way. Something sat on my heart, and it was like, 'I don't know that that's gonna happen like that overnight for me.' And so, sure enough… but I knew deep down it would for Tyrese."

She insisted that one of the huge differences between their careers is that Tyrese was offered franchise films following Baby Boy but she never got the same opportunities.

She said: "After Baby Boy, Tyrese booked two franchise movies huge, Transformers and Fast and Furious. I still have not booked my franchise film. Been in the game almost 30 years. No franchise film. I'm not gonna cry about it. I mean… I know what it is now. I'm on the other side of the table now. You can't hurt my feelings anymore because now I know there's politics involved."

Meanwhile, Taraji appeared on reality show The Masked Singer earlier this year and insisted she didn't worry about signing up for the reality show despite her acting career.

She told Entertainment Weekly: "I don't think about it. I do what I wanna do. I do what moves me. I do what excites me and inspires me.

"I don't care what other people are doing or what the industry says is hot or not.

"I have a solid fanbase and they follow me wherever I go. So I think those days are over now because of social media."