Amanda Seyfried reveals how messed up Hollywood’s wage gap really is
The wage gap is a real thing, even in Hollywood where A-list actresses get paid the big bucks to star in movies, they’re still all too often paid significantly less than their male counterparts.
This year we saw both Charlize Theron and Jennifer Lawrence fight to be paid as much as their male co-stars (and in Lawrence’s case, she’s going to end up making MORE money than her co-star Chris Pratt on their upcoming space romance Passengers). These women are inspiring other women in Hollywood to stand up and demand to be compensated equally.
Recently, Amanda Seyfried gave an interview with the UK’s Sunday Times in which she revealed the shocking wage gap situation she found herself in earlier in her career.
“A few years ago, on one of my big-budget films, I found I was being paid 10 percent of what my male co-star was getting,” she explained. “And we were pretty even in status.”
Of course, we can guess at the identity of this male co-star until we are blue in the face, but of course, it doesn’t REALLY matter who that co-star was. What matters is that Seyfried was paid TEN CENTS for every dollar her male co-star earned, which, despite this being a Hollywood paycheck, is way wider than the 77-cents-to-every-dollar average wage gap between men and women that makes us bummed out on the regular.
Seyfried’s theory as to why she was paid so much less makes our hearts hurt a little bit.
“I think people think that just because I’m easy-going and game to do things, I’ll just take as little as they offer,” she added. “It’s not about how much you get, it’s about how fair it is.”
Seyfried is absolutely right, even though it can be a little mind-boggling to hear about A-listers fight for raises that figure in the millions, they’re only asking for what’s fair and to be paid what they’re worth. We love actresses like Seyfried being vocal about this discrepancy. The wage gap has been allowed to exist for as long as it has because pay is often a secret issue, we often don’t know how much our co-workers are making, and it’s not a question polite society makes easy to ask.
By telling their stories and creating transparency, these actresses are normalizing a world in which women are empowered to demand to be paid what they’re worth, and that’s a world we ALL want to live in.
(Image via Sony Pictures Classic)
Related:
Charlize Theron demands equal pay because that’s what’s right
