Acclaimed director Ridley Scott's most recent film, All The Money In The World, came out at Christmas last year. It was an incredible feat given the film always had the December 25 release date, but when sexual assault allegations came out against Kevin Spacey – who played one of the key characters – the filmmakers boldly decided to do a last-minute reshoot. They recast the role with Christopher Plummer and incredibly managed to reshoot everything in November in time for the release date.
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The film went on to be nominated for three Golden Globes, including Best Director for Scott, Best Supporting Actor for Plummer and Best Actress for Michelle Williams. However, the film recently came into a heated discussion over the fact that Williams, who was also required to attend the November reshoots, was paid less than 1 per cent of what her co-star, Mark Wahlberg, was getting for those extra days.
It was reported by CNBC that "Michelle Williams was paid $80 per diem totalling less than $1,000" while Wahlberg was paid $1.5 million. The incredible difference in salary left many people outraged and pointing to the huge inequality in the gender pay gap.
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In response to it all, yesterday Wahlberg announced that he would be donating all the money he made from the reshoots of the film to the Time's Up Legal Defense Fund in Williams' name.
"Over the last few days my reshoot fee for All the Money in the World has become an important topic of conversation," Wahlberg said in the statement. "I 100 per cent support the fight for fair pay."
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Many people applauded the Ted actor's move of donating the money to the legal fund of the Time's Up movement, which according to the website "provides subsidized legal support to those who have experienced sexual harassment, assault, or abuse in the workplace". And now, Williams' has spoken out about Wahlberg's donation.
"Today isn’t about me," she said in a statement:
"My fellow actresses stood by me and stood up for me, my activist friends taught me to use my voice, and the most powerful men in charge, they listened and they acted. If we truly envision an equal world, it takes equal effort and sacrifice."Today is one of the most indelible days of my life because of Mark Wahlberg, WME and a community of women and men who share in this accomplishment. Anthony Rapp, for all the shoulders you stood on, now we stand on yours."
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Williams called it an "indelible" moment and emphasised the fact that the gesture was not about her, but about a greater movement. She also saluted Anthony Rapp, who was one of the first people to make allegations against Spacey.
In addition to Wahlberg's $1.5 million, WME, the agency that represents Wahlberg, Williams and Ridley Scott, agreed to pledge an additional $500,000 to Time's Up. The company made a statement about the conversation on the gender pay gap, saying it's "a reminder that those of us in a position of influence have a responsibility to challenge inequities, including the gender wage gap."
"It's crucial that this conversation continues within our community and we are committed to being part of the solution," WME added.
There have been so many problems in the production of the film All The Money In The World that it's surprising it got made at all. Only a couple of months before its release, the filmmakers learnt that the star of the movie, Kevin Spacey, had been accused of a variety of instances of sexual misconduct. Given these allegations, and the controversial way in which the actor responded to them, many believed the movie was going to be a flop.
That's when director Ridley Scott surprised everyone by choosing have extensive reshoots instead, wherein he would completely replace Spacey with actor Christopher Plummer. Somehow, they pulled it off, with many applauding the drastic but successful decision to edit the movie last minute.
It was then revealed that within these reshoots, there was a huge disparity between the wages of co-stars Mark Wahlberg and Michelle Williams. While Wahlberg had been paid a reported $1.5 million for the reshoots alone, his co-star, whose work on the film has been highly praised, was paid less than $1,000 - less than 1% of the fortune Wahlberg took home.
The director himself revealed that the only way the reshoots were completed in the first place was because of Williams and others working practically "for nothing". Learning that Wahlberg had negotiated for a massive payout for his time gained criticism across Hollywood, especially given the fact that this is a movie about greed, and comes in a time when the #TimesUp movement is in full force.
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The #TimesUp campaign, if you didn't know, is a movement to spread awareness of sexual assault and harassment across the world, with the intention of addressing inequality in the workplace and raising legal funds for those who are too vulnerable to speak up.
Stars in the industry such as Reese Witherspoon, Jessica Chastain, Mia Farrow and Judd Apatow spoke up about the huge disparity in wages on the set of the reshoots:
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However, it seems that Wahlberg has taken some of this criticism to heart, and seen the irony in profiting off the Spacey scandal, in a movie called All The Money In The World. In a recent statement the actor announced that he pledges to donate all of the $1.5 million to #TimesUp in light of these reports. Wahlberg said:
“Over the last few days my reshoot fee for All The Money in the World has become an important topic of conversation. I 100% 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."
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In addition to this, the talent agency that represents Mark Wahlberg and Michelle Williams, as well as the director of the film, Ridley Scott, also released a statement about their intentions to donate to the cause. WME said:
“The current conversation is a reminder that those of us in a position of influence have a responsibility to challenge inequities, including the gender wage gap.""In recognition of the pay discrepancy on All The Money In The World reshoots, WME is donating an additional $500,000 to the Time’s Up Legal Defense Fund in Michelle Williams’ name, following our $1 million pledge to the organization earlier this month.”
It seems that this movie keeps running into trouble, only to find a unique way to climb out of it intact. With this added awareness and funding to the movement, much good can be done in the film industry and beyond.
As the disparity between men and women in the world of Hollywood begins to become more and more clear, Mark Wahlberg has opened up about the difference in pay between him and his female co-stars.
It would be fair to say that the last few months haven't been good for the film industry. In the wake of the Harvey Weinstein scandal, there have been several revelations about the Hollywood that has cast the industry in a very negative manner. Whether it's the allegations of sexual assault against stars such as Kevin Spacey and Ed Westwick, or the lack of protection for actresses such as Uma Thurman on the set of Kill Bill, Hollywood has been revealed to be more patriarchal and sexist than initially thought.
Now, however, Mark Wahlberg has described that pay gap between him and his All the Money in the World co-star Michelle Williams as "very awkward."
Last year, the actor filmed scenes alongside Williams and Kevin Spacey for the John Paul Getty biopic that was being directed by Ridley Scott. However, when a series of sexual harassment claims levied at Spacey came to light, he was quickly removed from the project and replaced by Christopher Plummer. This led to scenes from the film having to be reshot, with both Williams and Wahlberg agreeing to reshoot their scenes in November.
But, rather than pay the actors an equal amount for the reshooting, Wahlberg pocketed $1.5 million while Williams took home just 1% of her male counterparts earnings. Unsurprisingly, there was outrage at the disparity, with plenty of people calling on Wahlberg to donate his money to charity. The actor, 46, obliged, and gave his entire reshoot earnings to the Time's Up movement.
Reflecting on the events in a recent interview, Wahlberg claims that he was kept out of the loop in regards to the situation, saying that he only found out about the pay gap when the headlines broke.
"It didn't take much to make the decision [to donate the money]," Wahlberg told Entertainment Tonight. "It was just the right thing to do, you know? And Michelle is a fantastic actress."
He added: "It's not me who decides who gets paid what. Your value's based on what the marketplace dictates, and with that particular situation, it was very awkward."
"It was like, you know what, we'll donate that and they need the rest of the money that I got paid to do it too, because I – like everybody else – did the movie to make the movie with Ridley Scott.
"I took a substantial pay cut."
Fair play to Wahlberg for doing right and donating the cash to a movement which is trying to eradicate incidents such as this. Given that he's worth a reported $225 million, I'm sure he won't miss the money too much. All the Money in the World is out in cinemas now.
The gender pay gap in Hollywood is under more intense scrutiny now than ever before.
While it may be easy to dismiss this as a champagne problem of the rich and famous, that same gender pay gap is mirrored throughout our society. Perhaps, then, while it might be galling for some to read about dizzyingly rich individuals complain about how much they are paid, it is worth remembering that their fight for equal pay has resonance in all walks of life.
Quite apart from that, in a society that likes to label itself as progressive, it is patently absurd that women - in Hollywood or otherwise - are paid less than their male counterparts for doing the same job.
With that mind, then, here are Forbes' top earning actors for 2017 in reverse order.
Emma Stone, meanwhile, was the highest paid actress of the year according to Forbes, having earned $26 million - sum that would have placed her at 15th on this list of actors.
There are few issues more pertinent to contemporary feminism than that of the pay gap.
In so many industries, women are being consistently shortchanged, and are (if a number of sources are to be believed) on average, paid a shocking amount less than their male counterparts for performing the same job at the same level of competency.
Although many naysayers have denied that the statistics show a skew in favour of men, feminist scholars and other activists have argued that this wage gap reveals the fundamental sexism of modern society.
Nowhere is this disparity more apparent than in Hollywood, where male actors are often paid far more than their female co-stars. Many activists have decried this kind of sexism, but yet it continues to go on happening, and when actresses voice their complaints about the practice, they are often shouted down.
If you want an example of this kind of pay gap then look no further than the case of Emily Blunt and Dwayne Johnson.
According to a report by tabloid website TMZ, Johnson is being paid almost twice as much as Blunt is on an upcoming Disney project. The two actors are both set to star in Jungle Cruise, but according to TMZ's sources, The Rock is being paid $22 million to play the lead male character, Frank, while Emily Blunt is only getting $9 million to play the lead female Lily.
This news seems to be all the more jarring for Disney fans to cope with after the Rock made an Instagram post in which he alluded to an overall positive working relationship between the Jungle Cruise cast members.
Posting a video of himself, Blunt and British comedian Jack Whitehall, Johnson wrote: "My British voice is beautiful & sexy. Their 'Rock voice' is repugnant & nauseating. The cast that trains together ... stays together. And the cast that talks smack to each other ... become LIFERS. Just your typical day in the IRON PARADISE with my JUNGLE CRUISE ohana, the relentlessly badass @jackwhitehall and the Incomparable One herself, Emily Blunt. Now bring it on in for a nice, long, sweaty, hug that goes on for way too long making it beautifully weird, while wearing 50lb chains. [sic]"
Jungle Cruise is a feature film based on the theme park ride of the same name. Directed by Jaume Collet-Serra, the film is set for release on July 24, 2020, and will also star Édgar Ramírez, Jesse Plemons and Paul Giamatti.
Set in the 1930s during the Great Depression, a riverboat captain named Frank (Dwayne Johnson) takes a scientist (Emily Blunt) and her brother (Jack Whitehall) into the jungle to find a tree with supposed healing powers. The trio are then forced to fight against wild animals and an enemy German expedition.
I'm sure the movie will be a good one, but it's a shame that this controversy will likely now overshadow the release.
Each year, Forbes compiles a list of the highest-earning actors based on data cross-referenced from Nielsen, ComScore, Box Office Mojo and IMDB, as well as special intel from "industry insiders". A few days ago, Forbes released the top ten list for the world's highest-earning actresses and yep... they probably earned a lot more in the past 12 months than you ever will in your lifetime.
The actress who took the number one spot surprisingly didn't feature at all in the top ten last year. This year, it was Scarlett Johansson who earned the most, taking home a breezy $40.5 million. It was reportedly four times what she earned last year, and it's largely thanks to her role as Black Widow in the latest Avengers flick.
It goes to show how successful the superhero franchise films are - which also explains why they keep pumping them out at speeds that are really starting to get alarming. While it's probably not the most esteemed film that Scarlett's worked on, it seems to be the one with the biggest pay-check.
While the 2018 male actor's list hasn't yet been revealed, Scarlett's Avengers co-star Robert Downey Jr also featured on the men's top ten last year, earning $48 million thanks to his repeated stints as Iron Man. But even though he earned nearly eight million more than Scarlet, he was only ranked at number six at the men's list. Mark Wahlberg took the top spot with $68M.
Last year, the highest-earning female was Emma Stone, whose $26 million paycheck was largely thanks to La La Land. She was absent from the list this year, as were Emma Watson, Charlize Theron and Amy Adams, who all had spots among the top ten in 2017. None of them made more than the $10 million cut off for the list this year.
The gender pay gap is quite apparent in the entertainment industry, and that's reflected in the number of career opportunities available to women in Hollywood too. A 2016 study found that female characters only make up 28.7 per cent of speaking roles in movies, meaning there are fewer opportunities for women to land big roles with big pay-checks compared to their male co-stars.
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However, thanks to new production companies like the one that Reese Witherspoon founded, women are beginning to create opportunities for themselves. Reese is at the helm of supporting productions with more female-led parts, as well as getting more women involved in technical production jobs. It's largely thanks to the success of her company, Hello Sunshine, that she landed herself spot number five, earning a total of $16.5 million in the past year.
The full list included familiar names, with (fun fact!) 60 per cent of the highest-earning actresses being older than 40. Here are the top ten female earners in the movies right now:
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