Olivia Colman has weighed in on Hollywood’s pay gap and insisted she would be paid more if her name was ‘Oliver’.
The Oscar-winning actress, 50, said the excuse that men attract audiences and therefore get paid more has not been true for decades.
Olivia spoke about the pay disparity on CNN’s The Amanpour Hour and revealed that she is aware of a pay gap with a whopping 12,000 percent difference.
Asked about her own experience, Olivia said: “Don’t get me started on the pay disparity, but male actors get paid more because they used to say they attracted audiences.
“And actually, that hasn’t been true for decades, but they still like to use it as a reason not to pay women as much as their male counterparts.”
Olivia Colman has weighed in on Hollywood’s pay gap and insisted she would be paid more if her name was ‘Oliver’.
The Oscar-winning actress, 50, said the excuse that men attract audiences and therefore get paid more has not been true for decades.
‘I am very aware that if I were Oliver Colman, I would earn a lot more than I do. I know of a pay disparity, which is a difference of 12,000%.’
Olivia played the role of Queen Elizabeth II in the third and fourth seasons of The Crown, replacing her predecessor Claire Foy’s role.
Claire previously said she was “deeply hurt” when she learned her co-star Matt Smith, who played Prince Philip, was paid more than her.
In an interview with the NET-A-PORTER digital magazine Goalie In 2018, the actress chose to call it a ‘dirty secret’ while lamenting the situation.
She explained: ‘It (the pay gap) hurt me deeply, because I had been working on that show for two years. He loved everyone in it.
And then I realized there was a big, fat, dirty secret that no one had ever talked about. Then there was also that thing about being an involuntary spokesperson. Why did it have to be me?
She added: ‘You feel lucky to have a job. It’s very competitive. So in that way, they rely on the competitiveness and vulnerability of the actors to say, “They’ll take it for 10 thousand dollars less.”
‘I couldn’t have said anything. And I think everyone would have preferred that. But I thought, if I do that, I’ll be fooling myself and every other woman I know.’
Olivia played the role of Queen Elizabeth II in the third and fourth seasons of The Crown, replacing her predecessor Claire Foy’s role.
Claire previously said she was “deeply hurt” when she learned her co-star Matt Smith, who played Prince Philip, was paid more than her.
Despite playing Queen Elizabeth II in the Netflix series, producers revealed that Claire had been paid much less than her co-star due to her Doctor Who fame.
Olivia’s comments are the latest in a growing furor over pay disparity in Hollywood.
On Tuesday, Taraji P. Henson was overcome with emotion in an interview that addressed rumors that she had said she was considering quitting acting.
After Gayle King brought up the rumors during a SiriusXM In the interview, the actress, 53, began to cry and took a long pause before she could speak again.
“I’m tired of working so hard, being kind in what I do (and) getting paid a fraction of the cost,” she finally said after Danielle Brooks, her The Color Purple co-star, extended a hand for support.
She and Taraji were on tour with the film’s director, Blitz Bazawule, to promote their upcoming film, which also stars Fantasia Barrino and Colman Domingo and is adapted from Alice Walker’s 1982 novel, Steven’s non-musical film Spielberg from 1985 and the 2005 musical.
He shared his frustrations at earning much less than some of his white co-stars in previous projects, despite earning top billing among the cast, and reiterated his criticism of studio executives for claiming he had no fans willing to see his films in abroad.
Taraji made it clear that many other black actors shared her complaints about poor pay.
On Tuesday, Taraji P. Henson was overcome with emotion in an interview that addressed rumors that she had said she was considering quitting acting.
She shared her frustrations about earning much less than some of her white co-stars in previous projects, despite earning top billing among the cast.
‘I’m tired of hearing my sisters say the same thing over and over again. You get tired,” she continued. “I hear people say, ‘You work hard.'” Well, I have to do it. Mathematics is not mathematics.
Adding to the financial strain was the need to hire a team to manage her career and public appearances once she became a star, which significantly increased her expenses, even though her paychecks still weren’t where she thought they were. that they should be.
‘When you start working hard, you have a team. What we do generates big bills,” he explained. ‘We don’t do this alone. There is a whole team behind us. “They have to get paid.”
“When you hear someone say, ‘So-and-so made $10 million,’ that didn’t make it into their account,” the Hidden Figures star continued. ‘From the top, Uncle Sam gets 50 percent. Now you have $5 million. His team gets a 30 percent discount on their gross receipts, not after what Uncle Same took. Now do the math.
She continued: ‘I’m just a human being. Every time I do something and break another glass ceiling, when it’s time to renegotiate I’m back at rock bottom like I never did what I just did, and I’m tired. I’m tired. “It wears you out,” she said, sounding exasperated. ‘What does that mean? What does that tell me?
Taraji added that her own difficulty maintaining her position in the industry made it difficult for her to help rising stars find their own footing.
‘If I can’t fight them to come after me, what the fuck am I doing?’ she mused as her tears intensified.
He paused for a moment to wipe his eyes and raised his hand to cover them as he sobbed, before collecting himself and continuing.
The Hustle & Flow actress also cited past complaints about studio executives telling her that her films “don’t translate overseas” as an excuse for not hiring her for bigger-budget films that would depend on international box office.
“I’m tired of hearing that my entire career,” she said. ‘Over twenty years in the game and I hear the same thing and see what you do for another production, but when it comes time to fight for us, they don’t have enough money. And I’m supposed to smile and smile and bear it. Enough is enough!’
He added that he had had to diversify with endorsements and other non-acting sources of income to keep up.
‘That’s why I have other (brands) because this industry, if you leave it, steals your soul. I refuse to let that happen,” she said defiantly.
