Olivia Colman on Hollywood’s Gender Pay Gap: “Don’t get me started!”
The issue of gender has been one of the hottest topics in the entertainment industry for years now. And while it was normal for male stars to be paid significantly more than female stars back in the days, women today are fighting for equal pay without any gender-related prejudice, which is absolutely great and a necessity. And while there are some brilliant examples (e.g., Benedict Cumberbatch is known for accepting projects only when his female colleagues are paid equally), the situation still isn’t great, and there are still some major issues in this aspect.
Recently, CNN sat down for a talk with Oscar-winning actress Olivia Colman, who gave an interview to the network’s Christiane Amanpour as part of her show called The Amanpour Hour. The two of them discussed numerous topics, but one of the more interesting ones that was talked about was pay inequality based on gender, which is what we have talked about in the introduction.
Amanpour asked Colman about the issue, and this is what the Oscar-winning actress had to say on the issue:
“Don’t get me started on the pay disparity, but male actors get paid more because they used to say they drew in the audiences. And actually, that hasn’t been true for decades, but they still like to use that as a reason not to pay women as much as their male counterparts. (…) I’m very aware that if I was Oliver Colman, I’d be earning a f*** of a lot more than I am. I know of one pay disparity, which is a 12,000 per cent difference. Do the maths, I know.”
While there have been positive movements in Hollywood as far as this issue is concerned, the fact remains that inequality is still there, and actresses like Colman shouldn’t be discriminated financially simply because they are women. It is an important issue that people have to speak about because if we simply let it slide, things won’t change.
This is why we laud Colman for speaking out and we hope that more actresses will speak out like this and that the inequality will be completely wiped out.
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