At Sunday night’s Golden Globe Awards, actor Michelle Williams, who was nominated for her role in All The Money In The World, wore black in solidarity with the Time’s Up movement and brought #MeToo founder Tarana Burke as her date. It was an evening full of inspiring messages and feelings of hopefulness, but only a few days later, we’re learning that Williams, like many women in Hollywood and around the world, is continuing to deal with wage gap issues.
At the end of November, the cast and crew of the Getty family kidnapping film headed back into production for reshoots. While this is a common occurrence on film sets, the reason for the reshoots on Ridley Scott’s All the Money in the World were anything but ordinary.
Only a few weeks earlier, one of the film’s stars, Kevin Spacey, had been accused of sexual misconduct by several actors and production assistants. The allegations also struck a chord with Scott, who knew that with Spacey’s name attached to All the Money in the World, there would be an intense push back at the theatres and lead to a tainted view on a film that had employed hundreds.
So, when news broke that Ridley planned to reshoot Spacey’s scenes with Christopher Plummer and still make his end of December premiere date, it seemed noble, but impossible. Scott managed to pull off the enormous feat, kudos to him, but now a new dark shadow has been cast over All the Money in the World. Apparently, the film had all the money for star Mark Wahlberg, but not for his co-star Michelle Williams.
When All the Money in the World returned for reshoots, Scott and Williams both told USA Today that they didn’t take a salary for the extra days. “I said I’d be wherever they needed me, whenever they needed me,” said Williams. “And they could have my salary, they could have my holiday, whatever they wanted. Because I appreciated so much that they were making this massive effort.”
While the crew was paid for reshoots, as was new cast member Christopher Plummer, Scott said the buck stopped there, adding “The whole reshoot was — in normal terms was expensive but not as expensive as you think. Because all of them, everyone did it for nothing.”
It turns out that not everyone was there out of the goodness of their hearts. Sources close to the film have now disclosed to USA Today that while Michelle Williams was paid a per diem of $80 per day, which amounted to $1,000 for all the reshoots, her co-star Mark Wahlberg took home a $1.5 million cheque for the added days of filming. Both actors are represented by William Morris Endeavor agency and according to sources, Williams was not told about Walhberg’s salary.
With news of the pay gap now public, many actors and fans have come to Williams defense, including The Deuce’s Dave Krumholtz.
Michelle Williams is a captivating, brilliant talent. Her willingness to take 1k to fix the film is wholly honorable. Why didn’t @WME protect their client? Because they were too busy leveraging her shitty deal to get Wahlberg more money. Wahlberg packaged Entourage at WME.
— Krumholtz (@mrDaveKrumholtz) January 10, 2018
Jessica Chastain also commented, hoping to gain clarity on the situation. So far reps for Williams, Wahlberg and the film have yet to comment.
I heard for the reshoot she got $80 a day compared to his MILLIONS. Would anyone like to clarify? I really hope that with everything coming to light, she was paid fairly. She’s a brilliant actress and is wonderful in the film. https://t.co/VzGA2ucAjV
— Jessica Chastain (@jes_chastain) January 9, 2018
According to Sony itself, Michelle Williams is the film’s lead actress; Mark Wahlberg is a supporting actor. And the same agency, William Morris, represents both of them. Not good.
— Mark Harris (@MarkHarrisNYC) January 10, 2018
Michelle Williams is one of the best actress working right now. It makes me furious that her talent is undervalued in this way. #EqualPay https://t.co/Tk5t9iDQd0
— Jesse Tyler Ferguson (@jessetyler) January 10, 2018
This week’s news reminds us of the wage gap issue that took place during the filming of Natalie Portman and Ashton Kutcher’s No Strings Attached. Portman had just won an Oscar for her role in Black Swan, but was still paid three times less than her non-Oscar winning co-star.
Time’s Up on the gender pay gap.
Michelle Williams: nominated for four Academy Awards and a Tony, winner of a Golden Globe, has starred in 2 Best Picture nominees
Mark: Wahlberg— Jon (@prasejeebus) January 10, 2018
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