Fighting for what’s right! Many Hollywood actresses have utilized their platforms to try and close the gender pay gap and advocate to be compensated the same as their male counterparts.
Michelle Williams was put at the forefront of the situation when it was revealed in January 2018 that she was paid less than $1,000 to reshoot scenes in All the Money in the World, while her costar Mark Wahlberg made $1.5 million. While the Greatest Showman actress did not immediately respond to the drama, many fellow women in Hollywood fired back on her behalf.
“UNACCEPTABLE. UNACCEPTABLE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! TO SAY THE LEAST,” Busy Philipps, Williams’ longtime best friend, tweeted at the time. “SHAMEFUL IS CORRECT.”
Jessica Chastain, for her part, wrote in a series of tweets: “I heard for the reshoot she got $80 a day compared to his MILLIONS. Would anyone like to clarify? I really hope that with everything coming to light, she was paid fairly. She’s a brilliant actress and is wonderful in the film. Please go see Michelle’s performance in All The Money in The World. She’s a brilliant Oscar nominated Golden Globe winning actress. She has been in the industry for 20 yrs. She deserves more than 1% of her male costar’s salary.”
Chastain, for her part, was even a fierce advocate in ensuring that her 355 costars — including Penelope Cruz, Lupita Nyong’o and Diane Kruger — were compensated equally and fairly.
“The actresses are all owners of the film,” the Sands Between Woman actress told Entertainment Tonight in January 2022. “We raised the money independently. We made it without a studio, without a studio system and we made it for a fraction of what a film like this would normally cost, so it was really exciting to bring this into the world in that way.”
Wahlberg subsequently donated his compensation to a women’s organization in the Dawson’s Creek alum’s honor. “Over the last few days my reshoot fee for All the Money in the World has become an important topic of conversation,” he said in a statement at the time. “I 100 percent support the fight for fair pay and I’m donating the $1.5 million to the Time’s Up Legal Defense Fund in Michelle Williams’ name.”
The Time’s Up Legal Defense Fund was founded just days before news of Williams’ minimal pay broke. According to the National Women’s Law Center website, the fund was created to raise money to “connect women who experience workplace sexual harassment and retaliation with attorneys and, in some cases, media specialists.”
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