Virginia Madsen claims being an ‘outspoken’ woman harmed her career: ‘I lost jobs’

Virginia Madsen claims that being an outspoken woman harmed her career.

“I was pretty outspoken as a young person, as I am now,” she told the New York Post in an exclusive interview. “But, you know, I was made to pay for that.”

Madsen said that because she refused to toe the party line — like not complaining when a man stood too close to her or, better yet, just shutting up and looking pretty — she paid dearly.

“I lost jobs because of it,” Madsen explained. “And I was frightened, sometimes threatened.”

The actress, 62, who had her breakout role in the 1984 David Lynch film “Dune,” said that that period was rife with “harassment and being objectified,” calling it “par for the course.”

But the “Sideways” star refused to capitulate.

“I stood up for myself,” she added.

The Chicago native, whose brother is “Reservoir Dogs” star Michael Madsen, believes that two things allowed her to navigate the Hollywood system.

“I knew that I was in this for the long run, so they weren’t going to stop me and they didn’t,” she divulged.

Madsen also credited family.

“The difference with me is that I was very close to my family,” she shared. “I had a very good support system … so that I could get through it, not unscathed but I could get through it.”

The Oscar nominee can currently be seen in “Lola,” in which she plays an abusive mother opposite Nicola Peltz Beckham, who also wrote and directed the movie.

Madsen confessed that usually she leaves her work at the door, but it was difficult with this film, especially as it called her to “do something abusive” with her on-screen son. That scene shook her up so much that Madsen had her husband, actor Nick Holmes, come pick her up because “there was no way that I could drive. Like, it was really so upsetting to me.”

She credited Peltz Beckham, 29, with creating a space that made her feel safe.

“But she knew just enough to push me without manipulation,” Madsen told The Post, “and so I credit her with what I was able to accomplish.”

Filming “Lola” was also taxing on Madsen physically as she was “very weakened” by “long-haul” COVID symptoms.

According to Yale Medicine, the symptoms can include “chronic pain, brain fog, shortness of breath, intense fatigue,” all of which can be debilitating.

“I was sick for a couple of years with long-haul,” she revealed. “And it’s not like you tell anybody, nobody wants to know your medical problems.”

But the actress is still at it and happy to act as a mentor for younger women on set.

“You’ve got to have a thick skin to be in Hollywood,” Madsen sagely noted, “and you’ve got to have an even thicker skin to stay in it.”