Actress Olivia Coleman insists she’d be paid more if she were a man.
The 50-year-old British star spoke candidly about the perceived gender pay gap in Hollywood as a guest 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 actress 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.”
Amanpour asked if she herself was being underpaid even though she’s an Oscar-winning actress.
“I’m very aware that if I was Oliver Colman, I’d be earning a f*** of a lot more than I am,” Coleman replied. “I know of one pay disparity, which is a 12,000% difference.”
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The actress is best known stateside for her portrayal of Queen Elizabeth in the hit Netflix period drama series “The Crown” during season 3 and season 4, a part that earned her a Golden Globe Award and Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Lead Actress. She also won a BAFTA for her work on the critically acclaimed ITV crime drama series “Broadchurch.”
Coleman won an Oscar for her portrayal of Anne, Queen of Great Britain in “The Favourite” (2018). She also received Academy Award nominations for her performances in the dramas “The Father” (2020) and “The Lost Daughter” (2021).
The topic of pay disparity between different sexes and races has been a hot topic in Hollywood for some time. Recently, actress Taraji P. Henson made similar comments about black female actors not being paid their worth.
“I’m just tired of working so hard, being gracious at what I do, getting paid a fraction of the cost,” Henson said during an appearance on Gayle King’s SiriusXM show in December 2023, as The Daily Wire previously reported.
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“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,” she said. “The math ain’t math-ing. And you start working a lot, you have a team. Big bills come with what we do. We don’t do this alone. It’s a whole team behind us. They have to get paid.”
“They play in your face. And I’m just supposed to smile and grin and bear and just keep going,” Henson added. “Enough is enough.”