The 2018 Academy Awards, the first to follow the bombshell sexual misconduct allegations against movie mogul and longtime Oscar powerhouse Harvey Weinstein, was already set to serve as a referendum on Hollywood’s treatment of women when a shocking revelation only furthered the cause: Mark Wahlberg had been paid nearly 10 times more than co-star Michelle Williams for awards contender All the Money in the World, despite commanding roughly equal screen time. Even worse, she was paid about $1,000 for reshoots while he received $1.5 million (which he ultimately donated to Times Up). The industry was outraged, and several of her peers spoke up on her behalf. The message was clear: Women in entertainment would not tolerate unequal pay.
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Despite some progress, not much has changed since 2018 — and now the industry is not only navigating the novel coronavirus pandemic, which has held up Hollywood productions and reduced job opportunities nationwide, but also is coming to terms with systemic racism after a summer of Black Lives Matter protests in the wake of George Floyd’s death.
Talent lawyers consulted by THR seem to agree that the one thing that has made a substantial impact has been new state laws in California and New York that prevent employers from asking potential new hires about their pay history. “This has allowed us to break the cycle of institutionalized pay inequity embodied in the ‘quote system,’ ” says talent attorney Jodi Peikoff, whose clients include Mark Rylance and America Ferrera. “The fees of clients who are women or people of color have dramatically increased, although often still not at a true market value.”
Linda Lichter, who reps directors Niki Caro and Chloé Zhao, says broader awareness of inequality has itself helped in negotiations. “I’ve been in situations where I’ve been able to say, ‘Men who’ve done this for you coming from a similar level have been paid x. Why are you offering my client half x?’ ” she notes. “I think the climate is definitely better for getting women and people of color hired. Is it parity? No, but it’s definitely better.”
While talent reps have been pushing for equal treatment for their clients, the people across the table may have other priorities — namely, a project’s bottom line. As a result, attorneys tell THR, some studios will try to force reps into giving up their client’s quote by starting negotiations with lowball offers. Says lawyer Darrell Miller, who represents Angela Bassett and Courtney B. Vance: “The buyer has a number in mind, and women and people of color often need additional leverage to go above it.”
Further complicating matters, there’s a glaring loophole in the law. If someone has worked with a studio or network before, the company knows what they paid that person without having to ask. That’s exactly what happened to Crazy Rich Asians screenwriter Adele Lim. She walked away from writing the sequel because Warner Bros. offered her significantly less than her white male co-writer. (She didn’t talk numbers, but sources told THR in 2019 that her opening offer was around $110,000 while his was somewhere between $800,000 and $1 million. Warners hasn’t commented on the matter.)
“I wrote Crazy Rich Asians for next to nothing because I was friends with Jon Chu,” Lim says. “This was the only project in my entire career that spoke to the culture that I grew up in. It was a labor of love. Because it was Warner Bros. and they’re the ones that foot the bill, they’re aware of what they paid.”
So being “quoteless” didn’t matter. Lim says the studio treated her like a novice because she had only one feature under her belt, as opposed to a writer who had just penned a runaway hit. “There’s always a new white guy wunderkind out of USC and the industry throws buckets of money at him. Women and people of color don’t get that same latitude,” she says. “It all came down to them not wanting to set precedent by offering me what I thought I was worth. You’ll notice with business affairs they only ever cite precedent when it benefits them.”
Lim’s co-writer, Peter Chiarelli, offered to split his fee so she could have equity, but she says that’s not the answer. It’s also not the first time a studio has let a generous Hollywood man step in and save the day. Emma Stone shared in 2017 that she received parity on past projects because her male co-stars offered to take less pay, and Sienna Miller recently revealed that Chadwick Boseman took a cut to give her a pay boost on 21 Bridges. “That’s amazing allyship, but it shouldn’t be on them to be paid less so we can be paid more,” says Lim. “It should be on the studios to pay us what we’re worth.”
Lim says she was hesitant to share her story with THR at first, and didn’t talk about the issue again for several months after the piece was published. “I didn’t want to be the face of pay equity in Hollywood,” she says. “No one wants that. You just want to be a good writer.”
While her intent was never to shame Warner Bros., she says it seems that negative press is one thing that makes Hollywood companies take action. Says Lim, “When a spotlight is put on a problem and there is public outrage about it, that is the thing that motivates companies to do the right thing, not just some internal moral compass.”
To wit, after it became public that Claire Foy made less than co-star Matt Smith on Netflix’s The Crown, actors at HBO saw the cable network shift its policies. “They’re now having all the men and women [making] equal pay,” Westworld star Thandie Newton told THR in 2018. “It’s a revolution.”
Bob Darwell, who works primarily with studio clients, notes that it’s becoming more common for people and their reps to take negotiations public if they think they got a raw deal. He also notes that it can be easier for talent to achieve pay parity than people in other positions because they can insist on most-favored-nations clauses to ensure equity. He says, “You might not be asking directly what somebody else is making on a picture, but you can say, ‘I’m accepting half a million dollars provided no other actor is receiving more.’ “
As for 2020 as a whole, Miller says “the George Floyd factor” has spurred investment in people of color, and he’s hoping it’s not just another superficial response. “You can’t do the same thing and just keep writing checks, saying ‘I’m sorry,’ keep making the comfortable give, and expect a different result,” he says. “There have been sustainable steps taken. It’s not all roses, but I’m optimistic.”
This story first appeared in the Oct. 7 issue of The Hollywood Reporter magazine. Click here to subscribe.
