Always Sunny In a Rich Man’s World

We all have our Hollywood idols. The people we dream of being because their lives look like a glamorous paradise. But things are not so perfect when you look behind the camera. Even the most successful celebrities have to face the universal issue of the gender pay gap.

During an interview in 2017, Natalie Portman revealed a shocking disparity between the salary of her co-star, Ashton Kutcher, and her own salary for No Strings Attached. She said that “Ashton was paid three times as much” as her for the movie. Though she knew about the gap in their salaries, she was not able to do anything about it at the time. According to Portman, “compared to men, in most professions, women make 80 cents to the dollar. In Hollywood, we are making 30 cents to the dollar.”

This was just one of many cases in Hollywood. Jennifer Lawrence was also paid considerably less than her male co-stars for the movie American Hustle. A Sony Pictures email hack in 2014, revealed that Lawrence, along with costar Amy Adams, were receiving a 7% cut of the movie’s profits while Bradley Cooper, Christian Bale, and Jeremy Renner received 9%. When this came to light, Lawrence said she was mad at herself for giving up negotiations early, more than she was mad at Sony.

Often, women know they are being paid less. But they let it happen because it comes down to doing it or not doing it. They are not willing to risk their careers and lose an opportunity to star in a potentially successful movie. And that is what is so sad about this. Women should not feel like they are powerless or that standing up for themselves could ruin their careers.

A common argument for the pay gap is that women get maternity leave and take more breaks than men. But, this argument is rather weak in Hollywood, especially with so many women continuing to exhaust themselves while shooting movies despite being pregnant. Another argument is that the salary depends on how famous the actor already is because this determines how much hype they will be able to create for the movie. However, women often get paid less despite already being fairly successful.

Jennifer Lawrence, Natalie Portman, and Amy Adams were all very well-respected well-known actresses by the time the previously mentioned movies were being made. Despite this, they were still paid significantly less than their male co-stars.

Women deserve equal pay for equal work. Gone are the times when women would sit back quietly while men determined that they were worth less than the male stars. Now is the time for women to call out such inequality and demand change. This is a decade of change for women in many aspects, and those in the spotlight have the greatest responsibility to their fans to be leaders and advocates of such change. It is a slow process, but hopefully there will come a time when the women and men, not just of Hollywood, but of our everyday lives, can work together as true equals.

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