Female Stars Who Had To Fight For Equal Salary

Neve Campell is an iconic part of the Scream franchise, but she recently announced that she wouldn’t be appearing in Scream 6 because the offer she was given what she was expecting. 

“As a woman I have had to work extremely hard in my career to establish my value, especially when it comes to Scream,” Neve said in a statement. “I felt the offer that was presented to me did not equate to the value I have brought to the franchise. It’s been a very difficult decision to move on. To all my Scream fans, I love you. You’ve always been so incredibly supportive to me. I’m forever grateful to you and to what this franchise has given me over the past 25 years.”

When Charlize Theron discovered that she was being paid less for her role in The Huntsman, despite sharing equal billing with her co-star Chris Hemsworth, she knew she had to speak up. When it came time to negotiate contracts for the sequel, Charlize asked for more — and the studio agreed! 

“I have to give them credit because once I asked, they said yes,” Charlize told Elle U.K. “They did not fight it. And maybe that’s the message: That we just need to put our foot down. This is a good time for us to bring this to a place of fairness, and girls need to know that being a feminist is a good thing. It doesn’t mean that you hate men. It means equal rights. If you’re doing the same job, you should be compensated and treated in the same way.”

Jessica Chastain says she’s turned down projects when she’s not being equally compensated with her male counterparts. Although she hasn’t specified what films she’s walked away from, she says it’s helped her “create a boundary” that educates other people “in how to treat you.”

“There was something huge that I recently turned down,” Jessica told Variety. “For me, it wasn’t about the money; it was an old-fashioned problem of the wage gap. I turned it down, and they didn’t come back. I remember afterwards I was like, ‘What did I do? Maybe it was a mistake.’ But it wasn’t, because everyone in the studio system heard what I did. So what you’re doing is creating a reputation: Don’t bring Jessica something where she’s not being fairly compensated compared to the male actor.”

Octavia Spencer stood up for a higher pay on a film after being encouraged by Jessica Chastain. She explained that while the duo were having a conversation about the wage gap, Octavia brought up pay discrepancies faced by women of color. Jessica immediately helped Octavia take action, and the women fought for equal pay on a project they were working on together. 

“I love that woman, because she’s walking the walk and she’s actually talking the talk,” Octavia said at a Sundance Film Festival panel. “She said, ‘Octavia, we’re gonna get you paid on this film … You and I are gonna be tied together. We’re gonna be favored nations, and we’re gonna make the same thing.’ Fast forward to last week, we’re making five times what we asked for.”

Sienna Miller says she’s had to turn down numerous roles during her career because she didn’t feel as though she was being paid fairly. At one point, she was offered a role in a Broadway production where she and a male actor were the only ones on stage. When the team refused to pay her the same as her counterpart, she turned them down. 

“It was a play with just two of us on stage and I was offered less than half of what he was going to be paid,” Sienna told Vogue. “If it was two men, it wouldn’t probably happen. Sad, but I walked away.” 

Later in her career, she asked for a higher salary before signing on for her role in 21 Bridges. The film studio turned her down and she almost walked away from the project — until her co-star Chadwick Boseman stepped in to donate some of his salary so that she was being fairly paid. 

Despite the fact that Patricia Arquette once made a powerful Oscars acceptance speech where she called for equal pay for women, she says she continued to be offered unfair deals from studios. In fact, she’s had to walk away from films where she wasn’t being compensated fairly. In one project, which she didn’t name, she says she was offered an entirely different pay structure than her male co-star, even though they were both Oscar winners.

“I’ve walked away from several jobs because they were giving me really bullshit deals that were really shitty and different from men in a really fucked up way,” Patricia told The Daily Beast.

Julie Delpy had to fight for equal pay for her role in the Before trilogy. She explained that in the first movie, she earned one-tenth of her co-star Ethan Hawke’s paycheck. When it came time for the second film, she was able to negotiate up to half of Ethan’s salary. And before filming the final movie in trilogy wrapped, Julie threatened to walk away unless she was paid equally.

“I said, ‘Listen guys. If I’m not paid, I’m not doing it,'” Julie told Variety. 

Amid Emmy Rossum’s nine season run on Shameless, she made a fight for her salary to be equal with that of the show’s male lead, William H. Macy. After extended contract negotiations, she was provided with what she deemed was fair compensation — especially considering she had spent seven seasons being paid less than William. 

“I’ll tell you the person who supported me the most was William H. Macy,” Emmy told The Hollywood Reporter. “To have the man counterpart on my show be like, ‘Yes, she does deserve this and more’ was so validating. And after it became public, it was a quick resolution.” 

Lauren Cohan was a part of the cast of The Walking Dead for almost a decade, and while negotiating her contract for a ninth season, she realized it was time to walk away. Amid the months-long contract renegotiation, AMC reportedly sent her “lowball” offers, and she says the whole process surprised her.  

“I kind of felt in some ways surprised, to be honest with you,” Lauren told EW. “And I took that, how baffled I was, and thought, ‘Okay, well that’s a sign. This is maybe just not a fit anymore.’ To feel like we weren’t lining up in so many ways I just thought, “Okay, well, maybe that means something.”

Despite initially leaving, Lauren has since returned to the show. 

Back when Hilary Duff was a teenager, her team was in negotiations for a sequel to The Lizzie McGuire Movie. Hilary’s mother Susan took part in the financials, explaining that Hilary deserved the $500,000 bonus Disney had promised to her immediately. Disney didn’t agree and completely withdrew their offer for the flick and Hilary walked away from any future Lizzie projects with the company.  

“Disney thought they’d be able to bully us into accepting whatever offer they wanted to make, and they couldn’t,” Susan told EW. “We walked away from a sequel. They walked away from a franchise….We weren’t feeling the love. They weren’t giving Hilary the respect she deserved.”

The Good Wife star Julianna Margulies was asked to reprise her role in the show’s spinoff series The Good Fight, but she ended up walking away when she wasn’t going to be fairly compensated. Julianna says “the deal didn’t happen” because “CBS wouldn’t pay” her. 

“The showrunners had found a nice away to reintroduce my character, a story that was to span three episodes,” Julianna reportedly said. “I was really excited about the idea, but CBS refused to pay my (ask).”