I’d earn loads more if I was called Oliver...
Olivia Colman hits out at Hollywood gender pay gap
OSCAR-WINNER Olivia Colman has blasted Hollywood’s gender pay inequality, saying that if she were a man she would be earning far more.
Olivia, 50, who won Best Actress for her role as Queen Anne in 2018’s The Favourite, got riled up when a US chat show host brought up the subject.
She said: “Don’t get me started on the pay disparity!
“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 to not pay women as much as their male counterparts.”
Speaking on CNN’S The Amanpour Hour, Olivia added: “I’m very aware that if I was Oliver Colman, I would be earning a f*** of a lot more than I am.
“I know of one pay disparity, which is a 12,000% difference.”
Olivia, who has starred in high-profile shows such as The Crown as well as films including last year’s Wicked Little Letters, also spoke about it in a Radio Times podcast last month. She said female-led movies like Barbie “get just as many bums on seats as male-directed films, leaving no reason for a pay gap”.
Fellow Hollywood star Taraji P Henson, 53, has also been raising her voice against industry salaries and not valuing Black actresses.
While promoting The Color Purple late last year, she revealed she almost quit the industry due to being underpaid. She said: “I’m just tired of working so hard, being gracious at what I do, getting paid a fraction of the cost.
“I hear people go, ‘You work a lot.’ I have to work. I have bills and the math ain’t mathing.”
The Crown, in which Olivia played the late Queen for seasons three and four, was also caught up in a pay row.
In March 2018, it emerged that Claire Foy, who played Queen Elizabeth in the first two series, was paid less than Matt Smith in the role of her husband the Duke of Edinburgh.
The Crown co-producer Suzanne Mackie then told a TV conference that the disparity would be rectified.
She said: “Going forward, no one gets paid more than the Queen.”
They used to say male actors drew in the audiences... that hasn’t been true for decades OLIVIA COLMAN ON AN EXCUSE USED TO JUSTIFY THE PAY GAP