The society of patriarchy is so repressive. Everything under my short skirt is mine, mine, mine.

Widely feted for her roles in Welcome to Sarajevo, What Women Want, Slums of Beverly Hills, In The Bedroom and Mira Nair’s The Perez Family, the consummate Marisa Tomei wowed Mumbai while visiting the city with Eve Ensler and Jane Fonda. The two-time Academy nominated star with an acclaimed performance in My Cousin Vinny earning an Oscar for Best Supporting Actress, has unstintingly lent her talents to V-Day.

How were you drawn in as the first celebrity to join V-Day?

Eve created the inspiring play. My involvement is a “giving back”. It feels right that artistes are attracted, with courage of conviction, to situations needing help. My awareness has only grown as V-Day has grown. I guess I’m an activist by default. V-Day came as a personal revolution, evolving into a journey to my own knowing and source of power. I was scared of being a “vagina warrior”. Got enough problems of my own, I thought.

What were these problems?

I grew up in Brooklyn, not Hollywood. I’ve been around, seen gender apartheid work. I wasn’t spared discrimination either. The society of patriarchy is so repressive. It controls girl children differently – that’s brutal too. Mental prejudice replaces physical violence. Intimately associated with all things life-giving, V-Day nurtures solidarity.

Your monologue, My Short Skirt, asserts a woman’s right to appear as she chooses…

Any woman should have the privilege of wearing a short skirt or whatever she thinks makes her look beautiful, without worrying about it being misinterpreted or misused by men. It’s a question of choice – a matter of individuality, of privacy. As the final line of the monologue stresses, “Everything under my short skirt is mine, mine, mine.”