“I wanted to be paid my worth.” How Hollywood Stars Fight Inequality

According to studies, actresses earn around $1.1 million less than their male colleagues with comparable experience. And even winning an Oscar or other prestigious awards is not a guarantee that the winner will earn just as much as her male colleague.

We at CHEERY decided to find out how the movie industry deals with the problem of unequal pay.

The legends of old Hollywood already had the problem of unequal pay.

The problem of unequal pay in the movie industry has existed since the Golden Age of Hollywood. One of the most prominent examples is the iconic role of Vivien Leigh in the 1939 Gone With the Wind. The actress worked 16 hours a day, 6 days a week. She spent 125 days on this schedule and earned $25,000. And her partner Clark Gable worked for 71 days and got paid $120,000.

The fees of the Hollywood icon Audrey Hepburn were also lower than her male partners. In 1954, the film Sabrina was released, where Hepburn portrayed the main character. She had already won an Oscar and Golden Globe for Best Actress in Roman Holiday. But the actress earned just $15,000 for the new film, and her colleagues Humphrey Bogart and William Holden got many times more — $300,000 and $150,000, respectively.

The difference in pay really depends on the experience, but that’s not always the case.

Of course, one of the reasons for unequal pay is that the main roles can be played by actors with different levels of experience. It was the case with Julia Roberts and Richard Gere that were in Pretty Woman together. The actress got just $300,000 for her legendary role, while the more experienced and popular Gere earned millions.

But when Roberts became a worldwide famous star, it quickly impacted her pay. In 1999, for Runaway Bride, she earned $17,000,000 and Richard Gere got $12,000,000.

Unfortunately, the amount of money doesn’t always depend on the experience. For example, Mr. & Mrs. Smith. Jolie got $10,000,000 and Pitt earned 2 times more. At the time, they had pretty much the same experience, but Jolie had an Oscar, and Pitt didn’t.

Also, there are times when more experienced actresses with more awards and achievements were going to be paid less than a less experienced actor. It’s what happened to Charlize Theron. The Oscar-winning actress was negotiating a role in The Huntsman: Winter’s War. She got the same pay as Chris Hemsworth. They earned more than $10,000,000.

This problem is even more acute for actresses of color.

Just look at the top 20 highest-paid actresses in Hollywood in June 2022, and you will see that there are just 2 non-white women: Sofía Vergara and Viola Davis.

According to the star of The Help and Hidden Figures, Octavia Spencer, women of color earn way less than white women. This is why her goal was very noble, “I think my goal is to make sure that all women of color get equal pay, and all women get equal pay.”

The words of Octavia Spencer are proved by the example of Zoe Saldana. For the role of Gamora in Guardians of the Galaxy, the star of Avatar got $100,000. And actress Karen Gillan, who played Nebula got $140,000, even though she had way less screen time. By the way, Vin Diesel who wasn’t even on the screen, but only voiced tree, got millions of dollars.

The situation is changing for the better, in part, thanks to male actors supporting women.

When actors help their colleagues fight inequality, the results can be shocking. So, the star of Black Panther, Chadwick Boseman gave part of his fee to his partner Sienna Miller. She didn’t want to star in 21 Bridges, because she wasn’t happy with her fee.

Another example of such support is the story of the star of Shameless, Emmy Rossum. For 7 seasons, she got way less than the more experienced William H. Macy.

But when it was time to do season 8, Emmy wanted her fee to be raised, and it worked because her colleague supported her, “I’ll tell you the person who supported me the most was William H. Macy. To have the man counterpart on my show be like, ‘Yes, she does deserve this and more’ was so validating. And after it became public, it was a quick resolution.”

Actresses often unite and achieve equal pay through negotiations.

Don’t underestimate the power of female coalitions. And the situation with the action film The 355 proves it. The co-producer and actress in one of the lead roles was Jessica Chastain. She made sure that her colleagues Lupita Nyong’o, Diane Kruger, Penélope Cruz, Fan Bingbing got the same fees.

And it’s not the first time when Jessica Chastain fought for women’s rights in Hollywood. The actress has said in public that it was vital that they required honest and equal pay, “Women need to step forward and demand they’re fairly compensated for their work.”

But sometimes, it’s impossible to negotiate fair pay, and actresses refuse to take part in projects.

Julianna Margulies got 2 Emmy Awards for the role of Alicia Floreck in The Good Wife. The actress was invited to appear on The Good Fight to portray the same character. Julianna Margulies said she would be happy to do it, but the studio refused to pay her what she deserved. She shared her thoughts, “I’m not a guest star; I started the whole thing with The Good Wife. I wanted to be paid my worth and stand up for equal pay.”

The star of Scream, Neve Campbell, also rejected the offer to be in Scream 6 because of a low fee.

The actress explained her decision in detail, “I honestly don’t believe that if I were a man and had done five installments of a huge blockbuster franchise over 25 years, that the number that I was offered would be the number that would be offered to a man. And in my soul, I just couldn’t do that. I couldn’t walk on set feeling that — feeling undervalued and feeling the unfairness, or lack of fairness, around that.”

We hope that soon, in the entire world, people will be paid as much as they deserve, not depending on their gender.