Faye Dunaway on her candid new documentary, Bonnie and Clyde and Chinatown

Dunaway asserts that Dorothy Faye has always remained with her and is still how she feels inside but wanted a public persona for this challenging profession.

"Faye Dunaway is the public persona. She is the actress and what I put out there in the world," said Dunaway. "The real self is not part of the public thing, the real self feeds the public thing and nourishes it. It is still there and cooking away and it's part of what I feel myself but Faye Dunaway is almost like a shell."

The actress started her long and illustrious career in the 1960s with various Broadway productions. However, it wasn't until her breakout role in Bonnie and Clyde that she became a Hollywood star.

The 1967 crime drama starring Warren Beatty and Faye Dunaway as the titular outlaws was an incredibly influential movie in Hollywood history and became controversial for its graphic depiction of violence.

The movie was indicative of the changing landscape of Hollywood but Dunaway admitted that "nobody knew how successful" it would be and that she didn't feel the significance of the movie at the time because she was simply "just doing her job as an actress".

Dunaway received a nomination for Best Actress for this performance and her career went from strength to strength, including roles in The Thomas Crown Affair and Chinatown.

Roman Polanski's neo-noir thriller is widely considered one of the greatest movies and is celebrating its 50th anniversary this year.

The documentary delves into behind-the-scenes stories from Chinatown that reflect the fractious relationship between Polanski and Dunaway, as she admitted that "there was lots of tension on the set".

In her autobiography, Looking for Gatsby, Dunaway said: "Roman was very much an autocrat, always forcing things. It ranged from the physical to the mental. He was very domineering and abrasive and made it clear he wanted to manipulate the performance. That approach has never worked with me."

Dunaway has a fierce reputation in Hollywood as someone who is difficult to work with. However, the actress believes that it is necessary as she strives for perfection in her performances.

"It's part of the craft. You have to do it as well as you can and pay attention to every detail, that's what makes it good and what makes it work," said Dunaway. "That's what I learned to do from [Elia] Kazan and [Sidney] Lumet as I was growing into the craft. You have to be a perfectionist and every detail is important."

Following Chinatown, Faye Dunaway was quickly becoming one of the most recognisable stars in Hollywood and achieved a big level of fame. Dunaway enjoyed the celebrity status to a certain extent but admitted she prefers to be more private.

"I don't like being so public. It's a champagne bubbly existence sometimes so it can be a little bit dangerous and you have to not get carried away by it."

Dunaway has played a number of strong and independent women throughout her career, most notably Diana Christensen in Network – for which she won Best Actress in 1977.

The actress said that she felt compelled to take the role because "it was very important at that time" and that "people didn’t want her to play that character" but decided it was necessary to do so.

Diana Christensen was a cut-throat programming chief for UBS Evening News and reflected the changing gender politics of the era as she held a position of power in a male-dominated industry.

Dunaway believes that her portrayal of strong female leads might have had an indirect influence on the MeToo movement as her characters gave women a voice.

The release of movies like Network and Bonnie and Clyde coincided with the second-wave feminism that occurred throughout the US in the '60s and '70s. During this movement, women were given more of a voice and the traditional depiction of women in Hollywood was subverted.

"The characters I have played, the independent woman and the woman who has a life of her own, have been right in there with the movement. [I was] indirectly involved with my work," said Dunaway.

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Faye will arrive on HBO and Max in the US later this year, with UK launch details yet to be confirmed.

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