10 actresses who opened up about gender pay inequality in Hollywood

10 actresses who opened up about gender pay gap in Hollywood

Olivia Colman is the latest Hollywood actress to not mince her words when she pointed out the gender pay gap. The 50-year-old star recently gave an interview with CNN in which she said, “Male actors get paid more because they used to say they draw in the audiences, but actually that hasn’t been true for decades.” Let’s take a look at what Colman and other actresses actually said.

1. Olivia Colman

When CNN’s Christiane Amanpour asked the ‘The Crown’ actress asked, “Do you have a pay disparity? I mean you’re an Oscar-winning actress, Olivia?” she replied, “I’m very aware that if I was Oliver Colman I would be earning a f**k of a lot more than I am.”

2. Jennifer Lawrence

Jennifer Lawrence expressed her frustration at pay inequality in a 2015 op-ed. She wrote in the piece, “If I’m honest with myself, I would be lying if I didn’t say there was an element of wanting to be liked that influenced my decision to close the deal without a real fight. I didn’t want to seem ‘difficult’ or ‘spoiled.’ At the time, that seemed like a fine idea, until I saw the payroll on the Internet and realized every man I was working with definitely didn’t worry about being ‘difficult’ or ‘spoiled.’”

3. Dakota Johnson

Dakota Johnson fiercely supported Jennifer Lawrence's op-ed about wage inequality and asserted, “She’s a bold woman, and I appreciate that. I think that it’s a good time for changes to be made in the way women are treated in Hollywood.”

4. Reese Witherspoon

Reese Witherspoon played an instrumental role in HBO's pay parity assessment through her work with the Time's Up movement. The star was at the forefront of helping HBO close its pay gap in 2018. “We just finished our process, where we went through and made sure that there were no inappropriate disparities in pay; and where there were, if we found any, we corrected it going forward,” Casey Bloys, HBO's president of programming said.

5. Sandra Bullock

In 2015, Sandra Bullock told Variety that the pay gap is “a bigger issue than money. I know we’re focused on the money part right now. That’s just a byproduct.” She added, “I keep saying, ‘Why is it that no one is standing up and saying you can’t say that about a woman?’ We’re mocked and judged in the media and articles. Really, how men are described in articles versus women, there’s a big difference.”

6. Natalie Portman

In 2017, Natalie Portman revealed that she was paid much less than Ashton Kutcher for ‘No Strings Attached’. “I knew and I went along with it because there’s this thing with ‘quotes’ in Hollywood. His [quote] was three times higher than mine, so they said he should get three times more. I wasn’t as pissed as I should have been. I mean, we get paid a lot, so it’s hard to complain, but the disparity is crazy,” the 42-year-old added.

7. Beyonce

Beyonce was plainly unhappy with Hollywood's pay inequality when she reportedly once said, “You know, equality is a myth, and for some reason, everyone accepts the fact that women don’t make as much money as men do. Why do we have to take a backseat?” “Let’s face it, money gives men the power to run the show. It gives men the power to define value. They define what’s sexy. And men define what’s feminine. It’s ridiculous,” Queen Bey stated.

8. Gwyneth Paltrow

Gwyneth Paltrow revealed she and Robert Downey Jr were paid different amounts in ‘Iron Man’. She reportedly said, “Your salary is a way to quantify what you’re worth. If men are being paid a lot more for doing the same thing, it feels s—. Look, nobody is worth the money that Robert Downey Jr is worth. But if I told you the disparity, you would probably be surprised.”

9. Sharon Stone

Sharon Stone did not get the same amount of money as Michael Douglas for the 1992 ‘Basic Instinct’ but she got the film contract written as per her will. In 2022, the actress revealed, “I couldn't believe how exciting it was and all of the incredible costumes that were being made just for me. I put in my contract that I could keep the clothes.” “People thought I was crazy, but the truth is I wasn't getting paid much compared to my male co-star. I made $500,000; Michael made $14 million. So keeping my costumes was a really smart thing to do,” she added.

10. Taraji P Henson

Taraji P Henson shared on SiriusXM, “I’m just tired of working so hard, being gracious at what I do [and] getting paid a fraction of the cost. I’m tired of hearing my sisters say the same thing over and over. You get tired. I hear people go, ‘You work a lot.’ Well, I have to.” “Every time I do something and break another glass ceiling, when it’s time to renegotiate I’m at the bottom again like I never did what I just did,” she added.