Olivia Colman, who earned an Oscar for her role as Queen Anne in 2018’s The Favourite, recently addressed the pay disparity that still exists in Hollywood in a candid interview with 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 actress told host Christiane Amanpour. “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.”
When Amanpour asked if Colman, who has an Oscar under her belt, was treated in the same manner, the actress responded: “I’m very aware that if I was Oliver Colman, I’d be earning a fuck of a lot more than I am,” she said in response.
“Really?” Amanpour said.
“Absolutely yes,” Colman responded. “I know of one pay disparity, which is a 12,000 percent difference,” though she did not elaborate on the people involved in the instance she cited.
In January, Ebon Moss-Bachrach gave Colman props for her appearance in The Bear during his acceptance speech after winning Best Supporting Actor at the Critics Choice Awards. Colman guest-starred in an episode as Chef Terry, an accomplished chef running one of the best restaurants in the world.
Colman’s comments arrived following Taraji P. Henson recently detailing that she still receives lowball offers, despite The Color Purple star’s success as an actress for more than a decade, including receiving an Oscar nomination in 2009 for her role in The Curious Case of Benjamin Button and her popularity as Cookie Lyon on Empire.
“I’m just tired of working so hard, being gracious at what I do [and] getting paid a fraction of the cost,” Henson said in an interview, which aired on Sirius XM in December. “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.’ Well, I have to. The math ain’t mathin’. When you start working a lot, you have a team. Big bills come with what we do. We don’t do this alone. … There’s a whole team behind us. They have to get paid.”
