Emily Ratajkowski on the depressing downside of being a "sexy" Hollywood star.

Ask anyone who Emily Ratajkowski is, and most will say model, some will say actress, and a solid portion will say the girl from the Blurred Lines film clip.

It is an unfortunate, but perhaps inevitable, result of the way in which Ratajkowski quite literally burst onto our radar. One minute the-then 22-year-old was largely anonymous; the next, dancing nearly naked on the most-viewed film clip of 2013.

Since that now infamous clip, Ratajkowski has worked hard at ensuring her voice is as loud and articulate as her looks well-known.

And in her time trying to crack into Hollywood, her status as a sex symbol — Ratajkowski has topped many-a-sexiest-woman list — has been a hindrance as much as a help.

A photo posted by Emily Ratajkowski (@emrata) on Jan 28, 2017 at 7:25am PST

In an interview with Fairfax released on Sunday, Ratajkowski recognises the downsides of having a reputation as a “sexy” actress.

“It’s an interesting paradox. If you’re a sexy actress it’s hard to get serious roles. You get offered the same thing that they’ve seen you in,” she tells Fairfax.

“People are like sheep and they’re like, ‘Oh, that’s what she does well.’ What’s so dumb is that women are 50 per cent of the population and they want to spend money to see movies where they’re portrayed as three-dimensional characters.” (Post continues after gallery.)

It’s certainly not the first time Ratajkowski has sought to start conversations about the cross-over between being sexy and taken seriously.

Writing for Glamour in October last year, the model resented how underestimated sexy women can be.

“Our society tells women we can’t be, say, sexy and confident and opinionated about politics. This would allow us too much power,” she wrote.

A photo posted by Emily Ratajkowski (@emrata) on Jan 3, 2017 at 3:25pm PST

“Instead our society asks us to declare and defend our motivations, which makes us second-guess them, all while men do what they please without question.”

Before that, in July, Ratajkowski wrote for Lena Dunham’s Lenny Letter: “You know, when Lena Dunham takes her clothes off, she gets flack, but it’s also considered brave; when Justin Bieber takes his shirt off, he’s a grown-up. But when a woman who is sexual takes off her top, it plays into something.”

From all accounts, it’s not the first time we’ve heard an impassioned Ratajkowski push for a more universal understanding that women can, and will, be versatile. And it won’t be the last.