Back in November, the Washington Post reported that Michelle Williams would only be receiving a fraction of the salary Mark Wahlberg would be getting for reshoots of the suddenly Kevin Spacey-free All the Money In the World. Yesterday evening, USA Today broke a story about exactly what that fraction is–1/1,500th–and now people are pissed.
In December, director Ridley Scott told USA Today that the reshoots were relatively affordable because “everyone did it for nothing.” Yesterday’s story, however, shows that Williams agreed to work for only a per diem of $200 (ultimately totaling $1,000) while Wahlberg’s agents apparently held out for a bigger fee. Although Williams is on the record (with USA Today) as having agreed to work cheap out of appreciation for the massive effort Scott and the studios involved were undertaking, it seems odd that the four-time Oscar nominee’s agents did not renegotiate following Wahlberg’s payday. (Both Wahlberg and Williams are represented by William Morris Entertainment.
A lot of performers and creators were on Williams’s side online:
Michelle Williams was paid 1% of what her male co-star made on her latest film. This is totally unacceptable. https://t.co/xE5ZNqjcrA
— Amber Tamblyn (@ambertamblyn) January 10, 2018
How on God's green Earth does Wahlberg not read the room, there? No way he doesn't know everyone else is doing it for free. He makes like $100m a year — how do you not tell your agent to let this one go?
— Ken Tremendous (@KenTremendous) January 10, 2018
Please go see Michelle's performance in All The Money in The World. She's a brilliant Oscar nominated Golden Globe winning actress. She has been in the industry for 20 yrs. She deserves more than 1% of her male costar' s salary. https://t.co/HIniew6lf7
— Jessica Chastain (@jes_chastain) January 10, 2018
But obviously, there were also the inevitable detractors.
This Mark Wahlberg "controversy" is SOOO dumb. He probably should have donated his time, but that's what his agent was able to negotiate. It has ZERO to do with gender inequality, except producers apparently thought that AUDIENCES value presence of Wahlberg far more than Williams https://t.co/SjzRAKO2PM
— John Ziegler (@Zigmanfreud) January 10, 2018
Perhaps Williams should have negotiated a better deal. You're gonna blame Mark for hiring better business people?
Let's take a breather.#WednesdayWisdom
https://t.co/74Cu8SU0bE— 🇺🇸GENESIS🇺🇸 (@Genesis33K) January 10, 2018
https://twitter.com/DrWutt/status/950920298559193089
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