Superheroics? Women’s work, says Hollywood
In the wake of Metoo, Marvel reveals its next phase of films will put actresses in the lead roles
FOR decades Hollywood’s superheroes were – with the odd exception – male. For people of a certain age, Christopher Reeve was Superman and Adam West was Batman. There was the occasional female, such as Wonder Woman, but they were the exception.
However, over the weekend, Marvel signalled a changing of the guard when it announced its latest batch of superhero films at the Comic-con convention in San Diego.
Several plum parts have been landed by actresses, reflecting a shift in the balance of power in Hollywood in the Metoo era.
How much the contracts will be worth has yet to be announced, but the studios are under mounting pressure to pay women as much as the men.
Marvel, in particular, has been seen by many as a male bastion for decades. Its first Hollywood film was Captain America in 1944 and since then its offerings have included Iron Man, The Incredible Hulk and Spider-man.
The most graphic example of the cultural shift is the latest Thor film –
Thor: Love and Thunder.
Natalie Portman will once again play the part of astrophysicist Jane
Foster, returning for the first time since her outing in Thor: Dark
World in 2013.
However, this time around Portman will also be wielding the iconic hammer, presumably because
Thor Odinson, the traditional hero portrayed by Chris Hemsworth, is deemed unworthy of doing so. “Feels pretty good. I’ve always had a little hammer envy,” Portman told the delighted crowd at Comic-con when she was handed the hammer by director Taika Watiti.
As the mighty Lady Thor, Portman will have a powerful case for equal pay, especially given a Forbes study a few years ago, which revealed she was Hollywood’s most bankable actor, earning the studio $42.70 (£35.15) for every dollar she was paid.
In the past, she has been an outspoken advocate of equal pay for actresses, revealing in an interview with Marie Claire that Ashton Kutcher, her costar in No Strings Attached, received three times as much as she did. “Compared to men, in most professions, women make 80 cents to the dollar. In Hollywood, we are making 30 cents to the dollar.” She is one of several actresses who have spoken out about the disparity in recent years, with the campaign for a fairer deal being spearheaded by Time’s Up, an organisation founded in 2017 to tackle sexual harassment and the Hollywood pay gap. Scarlett Johansson is another actor who has won the equal pay battle. According to The Hollywood Reporter, she will receive $15 million (£12 million) – the same as co-stars Chris Evans and Hemsworth – for Black Widow.
This will be her sixth appearance as the character and reportedly one of the major scenes will be a spectacular fight with her on-screen sister, portrayed by the British actor Florence Pugh.
Angelina Jolie joined the other A-list stars and was named as a Marvel superhero, portraying Thena, in Eternals. She will, of course, have speed, super strength and remarkable stamina.
Meanwhile, in Amazon’s adaptation of The Boys, Elisabeth Shue will play a character who was a man in the comic.
The raft of announcements at Comic-con will be welcomed by those campaigning for greater diversity in Hollywood and the ditching of the traditional male stereotypes. But the acid test will be whether studios’ commitment to equality extends to pay.
Scarlett Johansson’s deal will be hailed as setting a benchmark, even if it is some way short of the $35million Robert Downey Junior reportedly pulled in for Avengers, Age of Ultron.
Big-name actresses are not giving up and they are now thinking collectively. As Reese Witherspoon said in an interview with The New York Times: “We’re finally hearing each other, and seeing each other, and now locking arms in solidarity with each other.”
‘Compared to men, most women make 80 cents to the dollar. In Hollywood, we make 30 cents to the dollar’