Actress and producer Olivia Colman called out the pay disparities in Hollywood, arguing she would be earning ” a f— of a lot more” if she were a male actor.
“Don’t get me started on the pay disparity,” Colman said Saturday during an interview with CNN’s Christiane Amanpour. “But male actors get paid more because they used to say they draw in the audiences and actually, that hasn’t been true for decades. But they still like to use that as a reason to not pay women as much as their male counterparts.”
Amanpour asked Colman if she personally still encounters pay disparities, referring to her as an “Oscar-winning actress.”
“I’m very aware that if I was Oliver Colman, I’d be earning a f— of a lot more than I am,” Colman responded. “I know of one pay disparity, which is a 12,000 percent difference.”
Colman, who has starred in highly acclaimed films including “The Favourite” and “The Father” and television shows “The Crown” and “Heartstopper,” is the latest Hollywood actress to speak out about the pay disparities she has experienced in the industry.
In December, “The Color Purple” star Taraji P. Henson told The Hollywood Reporter she “gets tired of fighting” for equal compensation.
“I’ve been getting paid and I’ve been fighting tooth and nail every project to get that same freaking quote,” she said at the time. “And it’s a slap in the face when people go, ‘Oh girl, you work all the time. You always working.’ Well, goddammit, I have to. It’s not because I wish I could do two movies a year and that’s that. I have to work because the math ain’t mathing. And I have bills.”
The compensation and treatment of Hollywood talent, crews and writers were hoisted into the spotlight last year during the actors’ and writers’ dual strikes.
SAG-AFTRA, the union representing Hollywood actors, went on strike for 118 days last year — the longest strike in the union’s history — to demand pay raises, artificial intelligence protections and guaranteed cuts in streaming revenue. A tentative agreement was reached last November, a little more than a month after the Writers Guild of America reached a separate agreement with studios after nearly five months.