Olivia Colman was a steadily working actress before her Oscar win for The Favourite, but man has she been making hay of that win in the years since! And the world is a better place for it! Since Olivia won Best Actress in 2019 she has turned in award winning and/or nominated performances in The Crown, The Father, The Lost Daughter, Landscapers, and Empire of Light, to name but a few. She’s also been producing with her husband, Ed Sinclair, and one of their coproductions comes out in limited release this week. To promote Wicked Little Letters, a quirky British comedy based on a true story, Olivia appeared on The Amanpour Hour where she did not mince words with host Christiane Amanpour on the pay disparity she experiences even as an Oscar winner. As Olivia put it: “If I was Oliver Colman, I’d be earning a f— of a lot more than I am.” Preach, Oliver!
Olivia Colman is getting candid about the gender pay gap in Hollywood, which even an Oscar winner like her cannot avoid.
Ahead of her latest film, Wicked Little Letters, the actress and producer opened up about the wage disparity that persists throughout the industry during a recent appearance on CNN’s The Amanpour Hour.
“Don’t get me started on the pay disparity, but male actors get paid more because they used to say they drew in the audiences,” The Crown star said. “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.”
Host Christiane Amanpour then asked Colman if she has experienced pay disparity firsthand, given her status as an acclaimed actress with an Oscar, two Emmys, and four BAFTAs as well as high-profile projects like Wonka, The Favourite, Broadchurch, The Crown, Fleabag, and Heartstopper under her belt. She told Amanpour those accolades do not make her an exception.
“I’m very aware that if I was Oliver Colman, I’d be earning a f— of a lot more than I am,” she replied. “I know of one pay disparity, which is a 12,000 percent difference. Do the maths, I know.”
Colman is the latest Hollywood star to call out gender inequality in wages. Other outspoken advocates include Debra Wilson, who left MADtv in 2003 after discovering a pay disparity between her and the show’s white male cast members, and Jennifer Lawrence who penned an essay on the subject in 2015. Back in 2018, Michelle Williams made headlines after revealing that her costar Mark Wahlberg earned $1.5 million for reshoots of All the Money in the World, while she received less than $1,000.
In December, while promoting The Color Purple, Taraji P. Henson opened up about racial pay disparities when she appeared on Gayle King’s Sirius XM radio show, expressing her frustration and admitting it had made her want to quit acting.
“I’m just tired of working so hard, being gracious at what I do, getting paid a fraction of the cost,” Henson said. “I’m tired of hearing my sisters say the same thing over and over. You get tired. I hear people go, ‘You work a lot.’ I have to. The math ain’t mathing.”
Darn right the math ain’t mathing! This makes me all the more pleased that Olivia was paid for her role in Barbie even though it got cut. Whether it was intentional or not, her comments are even more timely considering we recently passed Equal Pay Day on March 12 — the date women have to work to match what men earned in the year before. Sometimes it’s really hard to believe this is the 21st century. Like Olivia says, whatever old, tired “explanations” are trotted out, there is simply no excuse for gender pay gaps of any kind to still exist, let alone egregious ones. There are allies in the fight — like the late great Chadwick Boseman — but salary negotiations shouldn’t have to fall to costars. So until the gap is closed, I fully support Olivia conducting all business as Oliver Colman in order to bank the pay she deserves. Hey, if accountants can mix up a payment between Tom Holland and Tom Hollander, it’s worth a shot.
Photos credit: Cat Morley/Avalon, James Warren/Bang Showbiz/Avalon, Dave Allocca/Starpix/INSTARimages, Abaca Press/INSTARimages
