The star VS the actor
To tell you the truth, several things have been bothering me about All the money in the world. No not the Spacey-Plummer replacement in the role of J. Paul Getty. No not the big salary gap between Michelle Williams and Mark Wahlberg. You’ve probably heard about that. The fact that Michelle Williams donated her time, re-shooting her role for a per diem fee of just $80, co-star Mark Wahlberg was paid $1.5 million for his part in the re-shoot.
No, I’m not mad about that, although I should be as a woman in the workforce. No, I’m not mad even about the fact that it took many many days of shaming Mark Wahlberg for him to make the sensible thing and donate his salary to the Time’s up movement. It’s a desperate PR move on behalf of his publicist, PR team and the rest of his entourage, but hey… I applaud the dude for doing that. I really do.
No, I’m mad at the public perception of the news about the big pay gap between the two actors. I followed this drama for quite a while on many media outlets, and I was shocked to find out that the comments bellow each post (regarding the Mark/Michelle pay gap) were pretty gender divided.
Understandably the majority of the male readers (at least the ones that commented bellow the post) applauded Mark (Ok I get that) and they justified it with the „Well he’s much bigger and bankable star then she is so he should have the big bucks. And… She’s „unknown“ compared to him, so it seems fair.
To which I can say…. Oh Bushtit! Look I get that Michelle will not be starring in any Transformer movie any time soon, or be considered for a role in any franchise action packed blockbuster. I’m very well aware of that and the fact that only success in Hollywood that is desired is the box office success. I get all of that. But you cannot judge and divide an actor’s effort in the same amount of time based on his/hers bank-ability.
Yes. He may be the star but she’s the god damn respected and acclaimed actress. An actress that is headed for a 5th Academy award nomination, an actress that is one of the most talented in her generation and an actress that can elevate a movie even with a limited amount of screen time (Manchester by the sea for instance). An actress that demands to be paid equally to her male counterparts. Granted you may say that her agent maybe didn’t fought so hard to get bigger pay (and you would be correct) but calling Michelle worthy of just a tenth of what Mark got in the same movie is just unfair.
When are we going to stop comparing the star VS the actor? When?
Hey, You have an amazing, insightful and creative blog and I really enjoyed reading your articles. I nominated you for the Liebster Award although I knew you were already nominated :)!
Find out about your next steps here: http://waitmarinawho.blogspot.tw/2018/01/ive-been-nominated-for-liebster-award.html