Sienna Miller standing up against pay inequality like the boss she is

Earlier this year, Sienna Miller was offered a leading role in a two-person play, opposite a male actor.

But instead of taking it, Miller turned it down. Why? Because she would have been paid roughly half of what her fellow actor would.

In a no-holds-barred interview with Vogue for the October issue, the 33-year-old actress and model relayed the details of how much smaller her paycheck would be than her male counterpart.

“It was a play with just two of us on stage and I was offered less than half of what he was going to be paid,” she told the fashion magazine. “If it was two men, it wouldn’t probably happen.”

She went on to say that the producer of the play wouldn’t budge, even though, as Miller rightly stated, women have to do a lot more legwork to promote the play. So she declined the offer and moved on.

“[It was] the only way to make a stand,” Miller explained to Vogue. “We are going to have to make sacrifices to make change.”

Miller is the latest A-list actress to speak up about wage inequality.

The idea of wage equality is a huge issue in (and out of) Hollywood, as more women are speaking out about inequality. Goddess Meryl Streep, Amanda Seyfried, and Charlize Theron have all spoken out about the issue recently, with the latter saying she asked for more pay for her role in the yet-to-be released Snow White and the Huntsman prequel.

Theron was outraged after she found out Amy Adams and Jennifer Lawrence were paid only a fraction of their male co-stars after multiple Sony accounts were hacked last year.

‘When I thought about the temperature out there – with finding out what Jennifer and Amy were being paid on a set with guy actors who are their counterparts,’ the actress told Elle magazine in an interview.
‘They’re just as good as any of the guys on there. Yeah, that pissed me off!’

But once Theron asked, she got the money she was looking for.

“They did not fight it,” Theron said. “And maybe that’s the message: that we just need to put our foot down.”

It’s upsetting and endlessly frustrating that Miller felt like her only option was to turn down work to drive her point home, but until men and women are paid equally for equal work, we’re here on the frontlines with you.

Related:

Rose Byrne dropped a major truth bomb about sexism in Hollywood

Cate Blanchett and Julianne Moore’s strategies for fighting sexism in Hollywood

(Image via HBO)